Reply #9: Why we need new leadership in the Dem party [View All]

[SemperEadem]

Those who we think are on our side are the ones handing us to the devil.


http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/slaughter.html

BILL MOYERS: What happened to the fairness doctrine? It was in effect for years. In the early '80s the Federal Communications Commission decided to…

LOUISE SLAUGHTER: Do away with it the grounds, on the grounds that they said it was not a law. It was just a policy. Congress then sprang into action and passed a law putting it into a law that…

BILL MOYERS: They overrode the FCC?

LOUISE SLAUGHTER: They overrode the FCC. And I'll tell you that it was such an astonishing vote. I think it was three to one in the House, two to one in the Senate. Among the people voting for it were Jesse Helms, Newt Gingrich and others.

BILL MOYERS: To keep the fairness doctrine.

LOUISE SLAUGHTER: To keep the fairness doctrine and codify it into law. But President Reagan vetoed it. And I remember my party was in charge at the time, the Democratic party.

And I went to the leadership. And I said, "This is outrageous. We've got to try to override that veto." And they would not. They did not make any attempt despite the overwhelming vote in both houses to codify the fairness doctrine. They refused to try to override that veto. And we tried again in about 1993, I think. But it didn't go anywhere.

And throughout all this time, I was also sponsoring a piece of legislation to require the broadcasters using our airwaves to give a small box of time to the challenger and the incumbent free. And they'd break it up into 60 seconds, whatever. It wouldn't bore people. But the candidate had to sit as you and I are sitting and talk to the camera. And we wouldn't have all these voice-overs. And I tried that one for six years and found out a few years ago that the broadcasters spent $11 million to kill that one amendment."


-----

Then today, I see video of * at some photo-op smiling and clapping Joe Lieberman on the back before sitting down and signing something.