• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, July 16, 2007

Want to hear both sides of a controversial story from your broadcaster? Maybe you don't need to.

The Democrats are backing the Federal Communications Commission in an attempt to revive the fairness doctrine -- which requires broadcasters to offer up competing points of view when presenting controversial issues.

The Republicans said this isn't necessary -- not in this media environment, when you can easily get those opposite points of view from thousands of traditional and new-media places.

Their argument is this: You can easily switch the dial, or more easily, turn off, the TV news program if you don't like it. I'm wondering if these are the same Republicans who want the conservative-leaning FCC to offer laws and rules when it comes to sex- or violent-related content.

So, on the one hand, they don't want to legislate opinion -- but they do want to legislate certain content from entering your living room.

Now, people will say the difference is in protecting children -- that they can't, or won't, change the channel when it comes to content they shouldn't be seeing.

All this seems like stopping a fire with a water pistol.  These days cable networks and Web sites overwhelm over-the-air broadcasting content through radio or TV networks. If parents are in charge, this job is easy to monitor and control. If parents aren't around, it becomes harder.  Still, is this the government's work?

For Fox News, MSNBC, or CNN, the fairness doctrine is of no concern. Two sides of the story or three or one, cable news networks are not governed by over-the-air FCC rules -- other than their own internal rules of journalistic fairness.  That's letting the market decide.

The bottom line is this: Balanced opinions on controversial issues are not a big deal for some Congressmen. And, who cares if kids are being exposed to one-sided news stories. All they do is watch "American Idol" or play video games anyway. Right?