I ran across this today and just had to say something. In recent months there has been a push to restore the ‘Fairness Doctrine‘ and for some reason there is a group of people that think if brought back completely and that it should apply to online forms of media as well. My main point here is not to discuss the legitimacy of the ‘Fairness Doctrine,’ but to point out how insane people are if they think something like this can be applied to online forms of communication.
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.
When I first read this I couldn’t guess which party would want this type of regulation. Both the left and right thinks the other controls the media, so I actually figured the right would be the ones asking for balance in blogs since blogs are free and easy to start and only the well written ones get read — which explains why my blog gets minimal traffic. 
Then I read this quote and my assumptions made an ass out of me (again):
Democrats oppose government-mandated balance on the Internet by a 48% to 37% margin. Sixty-one percent (61%) of Republicans reject government involvement in Internet content along with 67% of unaffiliated voters.
These statistics are incomplete (since we don’t know how many Republicans or unaffiliated voters are in favor of government mandated balance), so I can’t draw any real conclusions other than the fact that 37% of Democrats are idiots, as much as 27% of Republicans are idiots, and as much as 21% of unaffiliated voters are idiots.
(I’m presuming that 12% of Republican and unaffiliated voters are ‘Not Sure’ about regulation of Internet media. This seems like the high-end of the spectrum since the poll average was 12% and based on the numbers above 15% of Democrats were undecided. I don’t know the breakdown of party affiliation of those surveyed, so I can’t say for sure.)
EDIT: Added link to ‘Fairness Doctrine’ and explained that’s what the article I’m linking is referencing is discussing.
Lets also not forget about the fairness doctrine for broadcast media, which asshats are pursuing now because air america failed miserably.
The Fairness Doctrine is exactly what this poll (and subsequent blog entry) is about — I should probably edit this to make that more clear….