Now, talk radio hosts have a serious problem next time a slow news day rolls around. What to talk about? Witness the last few years in apocalyptic Fairness Doctrine foreshadowing:

Rush Limbaugh "These people are going to try to consolidate their power and just get rid of anybody that disagrees with them. All dissent is going to be squelched... It's been going kind of slow, like a trickle effect so that people haven't really noticed it. The people losing their liberty have. But it's been very, very gradual over years. This is going to be a giant grab of federal power, if these people get everything they want in the upcoming election."

Glenn Beck: "Yeah it's going to happen. It's going to happen."

Sean Hannity "They'll have some obscure government bureaucrat monitoring the seconds of Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin and Neal Bortz... They bascially want to pave the way and silence the one avenue where people get alternative information that might criticize Hillary before an election."

Ann Coulter: "The next big 'bailout' planned by Obama, Reid, Pelosi and pals is... THE BAILOUT OF LIBERAL TALK RADIO. Conservative talk radio drives liberals crazy -- or, rather, it drives them crazier. They think it's unfair that more people want to listen to conservative talk radio than to liberal talk radio."

Mark Levin "[President Obama] has never said he would reject it if presented to him, and it likely will appear on his desk."

Laura Ingraham "Make no mistake, imposing 'fairness' on America's radio waves is an end-run around competing in the battle of ideas. Their new motto is this: If you can't beat them, silence them... We could soon see a Democratic Congress and a Democratic President push through a new Fairness Doctrine and that could mean that you won't hear The Laura Ingraham Show and many of your other favorite radio shows on stations across the country."

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.