The total establishment suffered a crushing defeat last Thursday at the hands of an outraged American public with the failure of the “comprehensive immigration reform” legislation in the Senate. And that defeat was historically unprecedented, with the sheer volume of incoming calls from an aroused electorate crashing the Senate switchboard for the first time.

All of the traditional information sources — the President of the United States, the bigwigs in both political parties, most of the mainstream media, big business and most national religious leaders — were supporting the amnesty for illegal aliens. So how did Middle America find out what was going on behind the closed elitist Washington doors? They got the facts from a handful of determined advocacy groups, from the bloggers, and from conservative cable news and talk radio programs.

Stung by the ability of the American public to get at the truth despite their best efforts to ram the S.1639 bill through without even committee exposure, the politicians set about trying to muzzle talk radio. While most of us were preoccupied with the battle on the Senate floor, on that very same day in the House they were trying to resurrect the “Fairness Doctrine.”

This isn’t about Republicans versus Democrats. It’s about the establishment versus the American people, and the elitists of both parties were in support of government control of programming.

• From Trent Lott — “Talk radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem.”
• From Diane Feinstein — “…in my view, talk radio tends to be one-sided. It also tends to be dwelling in hyperbole. It’s explosive. It pushes people to, I think, extreme views without a lot of information….I’m looking at [reviving the Fairness Doctrine] … because I think there ought to be an opportunity to present the other side. And unfortunately, talk radio is overwhelmingly one way.”
• From John Kerry — “I think the fairness doctrine ought to be there, and I also think equal time doctrine ought to come back….These are the people that wiped out … one of the most profound changes in the balance of the media is when the conservatives got rid of the equal time requirements and the result is that they have been able to squeeze down and squeeze out opinion of opposing views and I think its been a very important transition in the imbalance of our public eye….”

Here’s the story as reported in The Hill:

Fairness Doctrine hammered 309-115
By Alexander Bolton

The House voted overwhelmingly Thursday to prohibit the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from using taxpayer dollars to impose the Fairness Doctrine on broadcasters who feature conservative radio hosts such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

By a vote of 309-115, lawmakers amended the Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill to bar the FCC from requiring broadcasters to balance conservative content with liberal programming such as Air America.

The vote count was partly a testament to the influence that radio hosts wield in many congressional districts.

It was also a rebuke to Democratic senators and policy experts who have voiced support this week for regulating talk radio….

And here’s an excellent analysis of the subject from About.com:

Opinionated Talk Radio: Is it Fair to Require a Rebuttal?
From Corey Deitz

Let me ask you a question: if you stand on a corner with a sign that says, “I don’t support cabbage!” should somebody be required to stand next to you with a sign that says, “I’m in favor of cabbage!”?

Most reasonable people will answer “No.” Why? Because most of us know that the guy who supports cabbage is expressing his opinion - his 1st Amendment right - and the rest of us who don’t agree can look away or ignore him….

What this comes down to is simply this: liberals have not been able to compete with conservative talk radio as well as hoped. So, instead of playing a better game (i.e., create more compelling programming), they want the rules changed to make it easier for them to WIN the game. Maybe we should call this new movement about talk radio “No Party Left Behind”….

Also read Talk Radio Is a Business:

Why is talk radio conservative? …. The best answer is that conservative talk radio has listeners and liberal talk radio does not….

At the end of the day, privately owned radio stations respond to listeners and the advertisers. Radio is a business….Why blame conservatives? Blame the liberals who are not supporting liberal hosts!