President Obama took a bold step today to oppose any move by his Party to restore the ‘Fairness Doctrine’, and I applaud him for it.

To refresh one’s memory the ‘Fairness Doctrine” was adopted in 1949 and held that broadcasters were obligated to provide opposing points of views on controversial issues of national importance  — a current target by Dems today, for example, would be Rush Limbaugh.  The Doctrine was halted under the Reagan administration.

The debate over this Doctrine raised its ugly head by prominent Democratic senators this week and called for the policies to be reinstated.  Rep. Henry Waxman, Calif., met last week with staff for the Federal Communications Commission to discuss ways to enact Fairness Doctrine policies.  The report said Waxman was also interested in applying those standards to the Internet, which drew ridicule from supporters and opponents of the doctrine.  Waxman’s office denied the report.

Democratic liberals are not concerned with media outlets such as PBS, and the likes of Bill Moyers, nor CBS, ABC or NBC which clearly lean to the left, they are concerned about the number of conservative radio talk shows which outnumber liberal talk radio.

Obama gave a clear cut message to liberals in his Party to ‘back-off.’

And rightly so, for there is no more precious commodity in our Democracy than free speech, and I do believe Obama believes in this premise and the concept that it should not be stifled. Kudos to him for being a stand-up guy when it comes to the core of our Democracy, despite some very liberal opposing views within his own Party.