The Fairness Doctrine required holders of broadcast licenses both to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was (in the Commission’s view) honest, equitable and balanced.

The Fairness Doctrine should not be confused with the Equal Time rule. The Fairness Doctrine deals with matters of public importance, while the Equal Time rule deals only with political candidates.

The re-adoption of these rules will not mean that Limbaugh, etc will be off the air. Really depends on how willing a station is to fight complaints.

The rules themselves are really ineffective. What is effective is the threat of litigation.

I too am sick and tired of WSPD’s constant whining and complaining. Neither the fairness doctrine of the equal time rule would stop that.

Changing the station is far more effective.

I really like that! Thanks for a nice thought on a dreary day!

The fairness doctrine might be the item that ends the 2 party rule.

p.s. Take back toledo is a joke. I’m tired of the negative whinning of groups like this.

off topic – the new pizza joint downtown is a welcome addition.

Kate, thanks, that’s pretty much the basis of my position when I sat down to write this, that part of the problem is people not willing to discuss, but to demean and dismiss.

Yup. And to be perfectly honest – I couldn’t do those talk show hosts job. I’m seeing the real impact of bad government today.

I’ve never been afraid of anything. But I’m scared now. I look around Toledo and I see the empty manufacturing facilities, I see the empty shops, malls and offices. In the neighborhoods I see the empty windows with the foreclosure stickers on the doors. An army of them.

I drive down the street to my house, where I’ve driven for years. About three years ago I saw a toddler outside with his Dad. Every day in the front yard when I came home. The next year that boy was being pushed down the sidewalk on a bike with training wheels. By his Dad. Every day the sun was shining, this guy was in his uniform shirt – like maybe he was a car mechanic? – pushing this kid up and down the street.

Last summer I grinned every time I saw that little boy flying up and down in front of the house without his training wheels. Dad standing there grinning. Now the house is dark and there’s a foreclosure sticker on the door. I just cried when I saw that. These are real people in real lives that they only get to do once. This is not a dress rehearsal. And now that little boy will have his family losing their house as one of his earliest memories.

I am pissed, I am mentally and spiritually pissed off. I want to know how the people who were supposed to be, who SWORE to be the stewards of our economy, our city, our state and our federal government even have the balls to show their face anywhere? Seriously?

Barney Frank is reading bank CEO’s off about unacceptable conduct? Really? And he’s comfortable doing it on camera? For real?

So, I absolutely could not do their jobs because the FCC would probably have me put in jail.

But I do think that at least at the community level, people need to stop waiting for the government to show up at the game and do the right thing. It isn’t happening. So we need to have a community dialogue of some sort and a radio show is a great place to do it. I’m sure that’s what started the Take Back Toledo effort and landed it in WSPD’s lap.

How they move forward from here is their decision. I think Michael Miller’s column had a lot of food for thought for that project.

While it is true that the Fairness Doctrine is the boogey-man of right-wing nutjobs, there is no “free market” when it comes to conservative radio stations and he knows it.

Rush, Beck, et. al. owe their success to the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, hence their rabid response to any mention of bringing it back.

2 corporations, Cumulus and Clear Channel, own 13 radio statons that can be heard in Toledo and they are on shaky financial ground despite their stranglehold on the airwaves.

As to TBT, their response to Mr. Miller’s article shows how doomed their cause is. They cannot even gain the support of a man who publicly vilifies Carty and calls him an economic terrorist.

You declared those who don’t want to appear on WSPD as spineless, I don’t think a lack of spine has anything to do with it.

You’ll also note if you read the entire post that I don’t support the Fairness Doctrine, if you want to agree with the concept of calling senior citizens “parasites” that’s your choice. I think name calling demonstrates there is little of value to be said, you apparently disagree with that. That said, you have the right to call people names, they also have the right to not hold you in respect when you do…

It’s one thing entirely to discuss a bad policy decision, a poor choice in hiring or an unacceptable budget. But it’s another thing to mock a person, personally. And that’s a line that prior to our generation, people had more respect and manners than to engage in that.

That said, I enjoy Wilson’s show. It’s not a news broadcast and it is ‘talk radio’. It’s opinion. Nothing more and nothing less. And it is in the same vein as many other popular talk radio shows. If people don’t like what’s being said – CHANGE THE CHANNEL. But don’t legislate what may be said because you don’t like it. That’s not capitalism, that’s totalitarianism. And I don’t think we need to go there to cater to those that haven’t the intelligence to figure out the little dials on the radio and how to use them. Puh.

Personally, I’m so mad at the Mayor of Toledo right now that I’ll do everything I can to see he’s not re-elected. I believe he and the other leaders in this area for the last 30 years have SCREWED THE POOCH. And any person with an I.Q. of shoe leather, in the Mayor’s shoes, would tender a heart felt apology for having failed so abjectly to serve the city of Toledo and move.

But I do think this could be a wake up call to try to return to a time in history where there were lines of societal politeness. I think it would go a long way toward restoring a sense of detente among people and political parties.

The first step in resolving parties in oppositional positions is discussion.