Kathleen Parker on the Limbaugh dust-up:
El Rushbo can’t have minded much, despite his protestations that he was being maligned by the White House to distract Americans from the “plunging economy.” What could be better for a talking head than to be chosen by a president as his worthy adversary?
At least both sides certainly should finally agree on one thing: The Fairness Doctrine is a terrible idea! Who wants fair and politically balanced commentary on the airwaves when being “unfair” is keeping both armies in their Humvees?
This is maddening. No one wants to bring back the Fairness Doctrine. Obama said he didn’t want to bring back the Fairness Doctrine. Last week, the Senate even voted to bar the FCC from doing so, it passed 87-11, which implies the anemic support it had even among Democrats. The vote was reported in Parker’s own newspaper. The words “Fairness Doctrine” were of absolute zero political relevance, except as a right wing bogeyman, even before the Senate voted overwhelmingly to keep it from being reinstated.
Parker insists that Mitt Romney, not Rush Limbaugh, is the true leader of the Republican Party. Strange then, that the one policy priority Parker would mention in her column is the Fairness Doctrine, which was only relevant to conservative talk radio hosts and their audiences. Parker can argue that Romney is the “real leader” of the GOP all she wants–and he’s certainly a wiser choice–but her priorities in this column, invoking the zombie Fairness Doctrine, are Limbaugh’s, not Romney’s.
— A. Serwer
