More than 20 years have passed since the Reagan administration sent the so-called Fairness Doctrine to the ash heap of history. In so doing, it ended a violation of the First Amendment's guarantee of free political speech that managed to survive for almost four decades.

Those old enough will remember how afternoon sitcom reruns were regularly interrupted by some little old lady or wild-eyed activist being given several minutes of "equal time." The mind-numbing interludes were how TV and radio complied with that erstwhile Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulation requiring "balance" on the airwaves.

In the years since the Fairness Doctrine was scrapped, America's elite media establishment, which had thought its comfortable position of power was permanent, has been rocked by a free speech revolution courtesy of talk radio and a whole universe of bloggers. Their instant fact checks and counterpunches have dethroned the Big Three TV networks, as well as the New York Times and Washington Post.