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Opinion

FAKE NEWS: The ‘Fairness Doctrine’ Is Back With A Vengence

The Fairness Doctrine Is Back
This time around the left is calling it “fake news”. The left has taken their third consecutive electoral beating and this time around they get to add the Presidency to the long list of offices they don’t get to occupy anymore. And, the left being the left, has to pin the tail of blame on any donkey other than their own representative jack ass. So fake news has emerged as the object of their blame.

Fake News Is?
I have to admit, until the whole “fake news” thing came up I had no idea what it was. Yet I’d seen it on the internet. Call me old school but when I grew up things like critical thinking and healthy skepticism were valued intellectual qualities. That said, whenever I saw one of those weird items in my social media or elsewhere my natural reaction was to a) question its veracity and b) if it was worth my time to further research and verify it.

For example, if one of these items claimed that Hillary Clinton planned to lobotomize people and create a secret army of I-pod commanded human drones I would a) question the legitimacy of that “news” and b) if it was worth my time (in this example it wouldn’t have been because the item would’ve obviously been illegitimate) I would have researched it to find the underlying truth. The underlying truth very well might have been that Hillary herself was a lobotomized human drone, but that’s another story for another time.

In America 2016, we find ourselves in a country where a generation and a half or so have been taught to disavow critical thinking because a bunch of white western philosophers created it and why should we hold them up above all things non-white and non-western. Healthy skepticism simply doesn’t exist left of center anymore. Liberals accept anything and everything they are told without question – provided they believe the information is coming from a left-leaning source.

Several years ago yours truly once convinced a die-hard Obama supporter that a man named “Walter Moncrief” was taking over the economy at Obama’s request – even after I revealed to the young Obamunist that I was trolling him, I proceeded to do it all over again using the same “Walter Moncrief” and he bought it hook line and sinker. (This wasn’t part of some sick joke on my part but rather, an effort to prove that liberals are intellectually shallow and completely non-inquisitive by nature). Is it any wonder liberals would worry that people might believe everything they see on the internet?

Thing Is, I Can Say What I Want to Even If I’m Not Serious
(For those that caught the reference in the above, you are welcome).

Fake news, real news, stories about gumdrops and applesauce and the massive rear end sported by that Kardashian lady, are all things we are allowed to write and publish in these United States. The First Amendment says we can. The Kardashian lady does all she can to make sure her massive rear end is as publicized as often as possible.

The First Amendment says that if Woodward and Bernstein want to investigate Watergate and expose the misdeeds of a sitting President, they can.

It says a rock band can call themselves Tool and in their songs they can say what they want to even if they aren’t serious.

And it says that if someone wants to make thousands of dollars a month – apparently that’s what “successful fake news” gurus rake in according to the Washington Post – by pushing ridiculous stories, they can.

By Calling It Fake
The left of course are the most intolerant and exclusionary people in our number. They can’t handle dissent. Within their own ranks they routinely tar and feather anyone that misses a beat in their ideological lockstep. Outside their ranks, they can’t have anyone listening to information that challenges their carefully constructed version of reality. They have to get rid of it.

In 2016 nobody’s going to accept a resurrected Fairness Doctrine simply because it would be impossible to enforce. There are too many information sources out there to deal with. Besides, the left’s goal isn’t to share the public square but to kick competing ideas out of it. “Fake news” then is a deliberate term.

If it’s “fake” it isn’t real. If it isn’t real, then it doesn’t really exist here in Realville with the rest of us. Since it’s “fake” and it isn’t real and it’s not really here anyway, what if we write some legislation or come up with some government scheme to regulate it away. That’s the left’s goal. Call it fake to lessen its value as free speech, and then once its debased use the power of law to make it go away.

Kind of like taking a rape victim and lessening the value or his or her claim before using the mechanisms of law to ensure nobody’s prosecuted for the assault.

It Won’t Stop with “Fake News”
Like me you’ve heard liberals call a certain major league cable TV news channel “Faux News”. They feel the same way about virtually every right of center magazine, web publication, book, radio program, newspaper, podcast, and all the rest.

As they move to target “fake news” notice how readily they move from off the wall stories on social media to the legitimate news and commentary outlets you readily enjoy. Their attack against “fake news” isn’t about wiping slime merchants off of Facebook and Instagram. It’s about doing what they wish they could’ve done with a resurgent Fairness Doctrine – silence us once and for all.

Proof?
It’s at this point the hyperventilating leftist is demanding – as they often do – “Well that’s not so, Mr. Allen, so you have to prove what you are saying or else you are wrong”. Since I’m right, okay, I’ll prove it.

How many times have major media outlets been found doctoring 911 tapes or editing their own programming to make it appear favorable to their point of view? Anyone remember the Trayvon Martin incident? Or Katie Couric who has done this sort of thing serially? Not to mention 60 Minutes who not only selectively edited a recent Trump interview, but who allowed Dan Rather to manufacture phony draft documents in an effort to discredit George W Bush. Yep, there’s “fake news” out there. Lots of it. If I recall correctly, former first daughter Chelsea Clinton made $600,000 a year to freelance for one of the largest fake news purveyors out there.

Not a single voice from left of center has ever questioned ABC, NBC, Couric, 60 Minutes, and all the rest for their journalistic malpractice.

photo credit: zenobia_joy addicted to technology? via photopin (license)

Share if you agree Fake News is despicable, but not illegal.

Andrew Allen

Andrew Allen (@aandrewallen) grew up in the American southeast and for more than two decades has worked as an information technoloigies professional in various locations around the globe. A former far-left activist, Allen became a conservative in the late 1990s following a lengthy period spent questioning his own worldview. When not working IT-related issues or traveling, Andrew Allen spends his time discovering new ways to bring the pain by exposing the idiocy of liberals and their ideology.

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