True North

According to Rasmussen…:

Nearly half of Americans (47%) believe the government should require all radio and television stations to offer equal amounts of conservative and liberal political commentary, but they draw the line at imposing that same requirement on the Internet. Thirty-nine percent (39%) say leave radio and TV alone, too.

I have to wonder what kind of rock those alleged 47% live under, to either think…:

• that there isn’t an over-ample amount of both liberal and conservative opinion out there
• that the “Fairness Doctrine” will “balance” anything.

I also wonder something that wasn’t in the Rasmussen breakdown: were part of that 47% conservatives who believed that the “Fairness” doctrine would actually bring conservative points of view to network, non-Fox cable and the major-market print media?

It’d be interesting to see the way the questions were put to the audience. Stating the issue as “should television and radio be balanced by federal decree”, for example, might make respondents think the question was about the general question of “balance”, rather than the left’s attempt to silence talk radio and the conservative internet.

At the same time, 71% say it is already possible for just about any political view to be heard in today’s media, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Twenty percent (20%) do not agree.

Fifty-seven percent (57%) say the government should not require websites and blog sites that offer political commentary to present opposing viewpoints. But 31% believe the Internet sites should be forced to balance their commentary (full demographic crosstabs available for Premium Members.)

Again, I’d love to know the actual questions.

Is it worth being a “premium member”? Probably not.

Cross-posted and comments welcome at Shot In The Dark.