Liberals are all riled up about conservative talk radio. So they want to bring back the Fairness Doctrine and “require "equal time" be given to opposing political views,” as Cal Thomas observes.
That’s an outrage, of course, a direct attack on the First Amendment. But conservatives have their own agenda.
Some conservatives, aided by the FCC, want to regulate violence on broadcast television and, for the first time, cable television.
The only trouble is that the FCC can’t come up with a decent definition of violence. Oh well, maybe Congress can do it.
So what do we do about it?
Increasingly, I meet parents of young children who have decided not to have a TV in the house. Having grown up with TV, they say they experience a period of "withdrawal," similar to that of breaking free of nicotine or other addictions. Soon, however, they are communicating more with their children, reading books to them and enjoying time together. Their lives are better without TV.
Imagine that! Of course, you wonder about the kids of TV-less families. My parents never had TV while I was a kid, so I spent my entire time at university watching TV. Of course that was different. It was back in the Golden Age of TV.
But, let’s be honest. It was still mindless.
The thing is, if we conservatives believe in responsibility then we have to allow people, other people, to be irresponsible. In a free society people have to make their own decisions to turn away from childish, addictive behavior towards the sunny upland of duty and responsibility.
We have a word for the situation where you are forced to be responsible. It is called childhood.
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