'Fairness' for fun and mostly profit

By Doug Powers

Newsbusters has a telling quote from Bill Press during his appearance on the Steve Malzberg Show on WOR radio.

This from Press concerning why he's for a return to the Fairness Doctrine for talk radio:

I know why I'm interested in it because I get up every morning at 3:45, I do three hours of talk radio every day from six to nine, that's my life, it's my business, I want to make money at it, and I want to be heard.

There are two options here, and, since I don't know Mr. Press, I won't guess which it is, but I have my suspicions:

1) Press is naive enough to believe that simply being given more time on the air will translate to making more money, and he doesn't realize that advertisers don't sponsor shows based on the amount of time the host is on the air.

2) Press is convinced that the "Fairness" won't be confined only to air time, but also dedicated to financial equality. In othe words, Press believes that the Fairness Doctrine II would subsidize his program with taxpayer dollars.

Maybe it's a little of both. All things being equal, I'd prefer being forced to subsidize Press's show to being forced to listen to it.