Book Review for my politics class

Book Review
Brian Jennings has an extensive history in talk radio and was around before the explosion of media availability in radio stations, satellite radio, internet, television stations, etc. Naturally, he has a vested interest in keeping radio alive, along with every other station manager, radio host, disc jockey, and musician. Jennings wrote a book entitled, “Censorship: the threat to silence talk radio,” to address some glaring concerns about the future of radio, talk radio specifically.
When most people from foreign countries think of the United States, one thing that predominantly comes to mind is the freedom Americans have; specifically, freedom of speech. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of speech, the press, and religion. The problem is that the First Amendment is in serious jeopardy, yet again. The “again” I am referring to is the Fairness Doctrine, enacted in 1949 to promote balance and encourage political debate on the radio. Unfortunately, the Fairness Doctrine failed miserably and ended up throwing a wet blanket over any controversial discussion whatsoever. Radio personalities avoided mentioning even the smallest issue that could produce a contrary opinion for fear of having to provide free airtime to any and all dissenters, which was extremely expensive for the stations, and also for fear of being fined and having their broadcasting license revoked. The problem was that if one side of an issue was broadcasted, anyone from any radical point of view could report them for being “unbalanced” and demand equal airtime on that station to present their point of view. At first glance, it sounds just fine, except what happened was that free speech was put in chains of fear and oppression. In response, President Reagan had the the Federal Communications Committee review the Fairness Doctrine. They declared it unconstitutional and when they “revoked [it] in 1987 by a unanimous vote in the FCC, there were congressional attempts to restore it. President Reagan vetoed one effort, and a later attempt was dropped when President George H. W. Bush also threatened a veto. (79)”
Jennings happens to be a diehard political conservative, and he addresses liberal efforts to restore the Fairness Doctrine or some semblance thereof. He cites statements from many different prominent politically active liberals that support reinstating government regulation of the airwaves and oppose the Broadcasting Freedom Act; new legislation that would protect freedom of speech on the radio permanently. “New York Congresswoman Louise Slaughter...stated that conservative talk radio was a threat to American-- ‘a waste of good broadcast time, and a waste of our airwaves.’ (80)” Even former presidential candidate John Kerry states that conservative talk radio’s goal was “to squeeze down and squeeze out opinion of opposing views...(80)” However, when one takes into consideration that the sheer mass of available information in the current media is overwhelming, and that all viewpoints, even the most extreme, are available to everyone, this argument seems passé at best. Not only that, but the prominence of liberal media is incredible as opposed to how few conservative-leaning media resources exist. In the mainstream, talk radio represents less than 17% of radio stations, and lots of those are in partnership with National Public Radio, a left-leaning organization. Not only that, but conservative-leaning media apart from the internet consists of solely FOX News, and the few hundred talk radio stations. Liberals, on the other hand, have Air America, NPR, CBS, ABC, and 90% of journalists in the country on their side. According to Jennings, his fellow talk radio personalities and research that was done, in a large part, the only reason that the liberals have a problem with conservative talk radio seems to be about the ratings: conservative talk radio rakes in the top ten ratings consistently, while liberal talk radio struggles to keep people listening. That is the irony of radio: it is a marketplace, and supply and demand dictate who survives, especially since funding for radio stations is largely provided by advertisers, and advertisers only want to use stations that have a large audience. Basically, those who tune in decide who stays, and conservatives listen to talk radio much more than liberals do. Why? Entertainment. Conservative talk radio personalities are fun to listen to, as I have discovered by spending hours listening to both left and right leaning stations. Liberal talk radio hosts tend to be a lot more condemning and negative of anyone who disagrees with them instead of presenting their own opinions and backing them up with facts. Conservative talk radio is also known to broadcast things that are kept out of the liberal media and news; information about the war in Iraq, for example. Jennings says that while all of the liberal mainstream media were condemning the war and claimed we were losing it, we were actually winning it by a large margin, and the only ones broadcasting this were European airwaves and conservative talk radio hosts.
What Jennings claims the liberals intend to do by introducing legislation that would create a new type of “Fairness Doctrine” through the “back door” is legislate themselves onto the air and persecute conservative talk radio until it is just too expensive to keep up with demands for airtime, defend, in court, statements that personalities made on the air, and having to deal with fines for being “unbalanced” or not serving the “public interest;” the euphemism favored by liberals. There is a lot of talk currently about establishing “programming advisory boards,” which are a collection of people from the community in which the radio station is located that the government considers knowledgeable of what the “public” thinks is important. There is a huge risk and a high probability that these boards would essentially become arms of the government to control what the stations broadcast and use them to silence opposition, as politicians and presidents have done in the past under the Fairness Doctrine. Another problem is, when the government has the power to regulate one freedom already guaranteed by our own constitution, what is there to stop them from slowly becoming more and more totalitarian? Nothing. Freedom of speech is essential to the American way of life, and for the government to meddle in it for the sake of “fairness” would be completely counterproductive. What those who support the “balancing” measures need to realize is that conservative talk radio would not be the only format affected. Liberal talk radio would be virtually eliminated as well as Christian radio, music stations (after all, a lot of music has political leanings and messages within the lyrics), and even news stations would be muzzled.
I believe that the points that Jennings makes in his book are extremely valid and are a call to action, not just for conservatives, but for liberals, because they would find that their own legislation had turned on them like a rabid dog and was rapidly eating away at their guaranteed freedoms. Jennings not only covers the conservative viewpoint in his book, but interviews liberals who understand the volatile nature of the fight for freedom of speech. He encourages the readers to become involved in the fight and to be aware of subtle ways that various groups, foreign and domestic, and not just liberals, are penetrating politics in order to use them against the American people. He addressed the issue of censorship very thoroughly, including the history of it in relation to broadcast media and and the current ways it is being addressed in all areas of government.
In conclusion, Jennings’ book outlines the basic threats that Americans face to their constitutionally-guaranteed freedom of speech and, after giving almost overwhelming amounts of proof for his points of view, uses his book as a clarion call to action for liberals and conservatives alike to forget certain differences and band together to defend our freedom of thought and both spoken and written word. I could continue for countless pages to emphasize the necessity of unity to fight those who would muzzle American free speech, because I completely agree with Jennings’ point of view and found my resolve to get involved strengthened by his passion to defend everyone’s right to say what they will, whether or not he agrees with them.

Bibliography
Jennings, Brian. Censorship: The Threat to Silence Talk Radio. 1st ed. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 2009. Print.