Posted 11:12 AM by Floyd

The "Council of Europe" is pushing a "Fairness Doctrine" for web pages. The original "Fairness Doctrine" was a FCC mandate: radio and TV stations which aired political opinions had to give equal time to opponents. This rule reified a two-party system -- if a Democrat advocates an income tax rate of 40%, "opponents" are Republicans who advocate a 39% tax rate, socialists who want 75%, and libertarians who want the income tax abolished, but only the Republican would get air time. The practical effect of the doctrine was to discourage radio and television political speech, and after the doctrine was repealed by Reagan there was a flowering of political speech, most notably talk radio.

Michael Peckham ably skewered this nonsense in a comment on Damian Penny's blog:

They should pass laws that would make it illegal to hold a protest unless the organizers can round up an equal number of counter-demonstrators. That's only fair, right?