The Senate has voted to ban the Fairness Doctrine. The Fairness Doctrine was already comfortable at home in the dustbin of history, but of course that didn't stop the right from trotting it out this year as another (bogus) example of liberals' efforts to oppress conservative Christians. Given the vote count of 87-11 in favor of the ban, along with Obama's statements that he had no interest in reviving the Fairness Doctrine, it's tough to make the case that the entire episode was anything other than a scare tactic

In its report on the ban's passage, though, the Christian Broadcasting Network raises another specter of Democratic censorship:

But there is also pending legislation backed by Democrat Dick Durbin that encourages diversity in media ownership.

Some conservatives fear that could be a back door to enforce the Fairness Doctrine.

Regulations to ensure diversity of media ownership -- which the Bush-era FCC systematically weakened under the leadership of Michael Powell -- are long-standing policies meant to prevent individual entities from controlling information in entire media markets. The basic idea is that the state has a compelling interest in preventing one person or company from owning a city's major newspaper, its cable company, three of its tv network affiliates, and eight of its radio stations. It has nothing to do with mandating viewpoint balance or otherwise regulating content, but rather serves goals similar to those of anti-trust policy. Ownership diversity regulation in no way censors Pat Robertson or forces him to air liberal content -- it just ensures that he, or anyone else, can't control an entire media market.