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FAIRNESS FOLLIES….For months conservatives have been nattering obsessively about how Democrats want to put their talk radio stars out of business by bringing back the Fairness Doctrine. It’s ridiculous. Barack Obama says he’s against it, there’s no serious legislation pending, and there’s no chance at all of any legislation passing. Given all that, then, it’s pretty annoying to hear Bill Clinton hand the talking heads some free ammunition on the subject. Here’s the Big Dog a couple of days ago:

Well, you either ought to have the Fairness Doctrine or we ought to have more balance on the other side, because essentially there’s always been a lot of big money to support the right wing talk shows and let face it, you know, Rush Limbaugh is fairly entertaining even when he is saying things that I think are ridiculous….

I don’t get it. Is there some kind of subtle three-cushion bank shot stategerizing going on here? Are we just trying to keep conservatives off balance over trivia? Or what? Because unless there’s some serious movement afoot to repeal the Fairness Doctrine — and I don’t think there is — Dems with big microphones really ought to just shut up about it.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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