As someone who tends towards First Amendment absolutism, I have always opposed the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" and I find the idea that anyone would want to bring it back most annoying. For starters, how is anyone supposed to define who or what is the other "side" of a given issue? Are libertarians entitled to weigh in on every issue? How about Communists, fascists, anarchists, Dominionists, femininists, and Islamists?

But reading about Air America's bankruptcy (via Glenn Reynolds) made me put on my thinking cap and think real hard. As it happens, my thinking cap is made of tin foil, but never mind that!

The point is, I have figured it all out.

Had the Fairness Doctrine been brought back, Air America would have been saved. Al Franken and company would have had to allow their conservative counterparts on the air (to counter them). You know, those mean hatemeisters like Rush Limbaugh, G. Gordon Liddy, Sean Hannity, etc. who've been on the air for years. This would have brought both the listeners and advertising dollars that Air America needed to survive.

So, unless I am reading this fairness doctrine revival movement wrong, it was a disguised and misunderstood cry for help by lefties who desperately needed the righties but were just too proud to beg.