By: Michael Calderone

Conservative talk-show hosts warned listeners all year that an Obama presidency, coupled with a Democratic Congress, could lead to the reinstatement of the fairness doctrine, a now-defunct FCC policy that forced broadcasters to present a balance of political views.

On Wednesday, I was asked about the reinstatement of the fairness doctrine on a radio show and couldn’t think of any leading Democrats that are actually pushing for it. Neither could the New Republic.

Responses from the offices of most of the Democrats who have been pegged as fairness-doctrine proponents–Schumer, Dick Durbin, Dianne Feinstein, and others–have ranged from a firm denial that the issue is a priority at all to disbelief at finding themselves at the center of a manufactured controversy. "Somebody plucked this out of the clear blue sky," says the press secretary for New Mexico Senator Jeff Bingaman, a Democrat who was questioned about the issue by a conservative radio-show host a few weeks ago. "This is a completely made- up issue." Senator Durbin’s press secretary says that Durbin has "no plans, no language, no nothing. He was asked in a hallway last year, he gave his personal view"–that the American people were served well under the doctrine–"and it’s all been blown out of proportion." In fact, as recently as last year, the House voted by an overwhelming three-to-one margin to temporarily prohibit the FCC from imposing the dead policy; 113 Democrats voted to support the move.

Meanwhile, the president-elect himself has said in no uncertain terms that he does "not support reimposing the fairness doctrine on broadcasters."

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