I have to wonder if FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell is actually trying to raise a red herring here regarding net neutrality, or if he is simply so drunk on the market society kool aid that he is simply incapable of understanding the full scope of what he is saying, and the depth of fallacy regarding his concern about ‘government’ censorship’ of the internet?

Either way this is completely irresponsible.

“I think the fear is that somehow large corporations will censor their content, their points of view, right,” McDowell said. “I think the bigger concern for them should be if you have government dictating content policy, which by the way would have a big First Amendment problem.”

“Then, whoever is in charge of government is going to determine what is fair, under a so-called ‘Fairness Doctrine,’ which won’t be called that – it’ll be called something else,” McDowell said. “So, will Web sites, will bloggers have to give equal time or equal space on their Web site to opposing views rather than letting the marketplace of ideas determine that?”

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A recent study by the Media Research Center’s Culture & Media Institute argues that the three main points in support of the Fairness Doctrine – scarcity of the media, corporate censorship of liberal viewpoints, and public interest – are myths.

About that ’study’, a colleague of mine from the Alliance for Community Media weighed in with this…

As an adjunct to this, the “study” referred is either a joke (as in hilarious) or a joke (as in so slanted as to be ridiculous.) Or both.

As just one example of many, you may be surprised to learn that:

* Major liberal-leaning sources of news and opinion reach a far greater audience than conservative-leaning sources. Audience reach and circulation statistics illustrate the liberal domination of the five major information media, two of which have no conservative sources:

* Broadcast TV news, millions/day: Liberal 42.1, Conservative 0
* Top 25 newspapers, millions/day: Liberal 11.7, Conservative 1.3
* Cable TV news, millions/month: Liberal 182.8, Conservative 61.6
* Top talk radio, millions/week: Liberal 24.5, Conservative 87.0
* Newsweeklies, millions/week: Liberal 8.5, Conservative 0

Actually, I have no idea of what they hell they’re talking about here. But it does show the value of having studies to back up your claims. This study is cited in the article without any assessment of its validity. It’s assumed to be valid even though it’s obviously a pile of steaming horse poop.

Josh Stearns of Free Press comments on this as well with his excellent blog posting McDowell’s Scare Tactics Reach New Low