Now that Democrats are about to enjoy a near-majority in the senate, the usual suspects are waxing eloquent about the need for resurrecting the so-called “Fairness” Doctrine for broadcasters, otherwise known as the “Stifling of Free Speech” Doctrine. Proponents claim the long-dead provision should be brought back to provide “balance” to the airwaves.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, removing the wooden stake from the heart of this measure would result only in the elimination of all discussion about any controversial issue on Radio and (to a lesser extent) TV.<\/p>\n
During the 1970’s, our stations, chained by the requirements of “fairness”, simply eliminated all contoversial talk and substituted music. With a small staff, it was not possible for us to adequately handle rebuttals to issues raised on our stations. This was a chilling of free speech, not “fairness”.<\/p>\n
The one and only purpose of the “Fairness” Doctrine is the stifling of dissent. Period.<\/p>\n
Back in the ’70’s, usually only a single group might oppose a stated viewpoint and request “equal” time for a rebuttal. Today, there are hundreds. The nightmare that would result from reinstating this flawed scheme would sign the death warrant for AM Radio.<\/p>\n
Imagine if your station carried a discussion on abortion in which the viewpoint was pro-life. Now come demands for time by NOW, Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and more, each wanting “equal time” to air their views. It’s a can of worms that no station wants to open.<\/p>\n
Legal scholars claim the doctrine will not be restored and even if it is it would not withstand a First Amendment challenge at the Supreme Court. I’m not so sanguine about a court decision striking it down. One can get better odds in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
With all the other problems it faces, Radio does not need a return to the bad old days of the “Fairness” Doctrine. That idea is dead, and should stay that way.<\/p>\n
Let all issues be discussed, without restriction. That’s more<\/em> than fair\u2014it’s the American way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Now that Democrats are about to enjoy a near-majority in the senate, the usual suspects are waxing eloquent about the need for resurrecting the so-called “Fairness” Doctrine for broadcasters, otherwise… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-radio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radio3k.com\/rblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radio3k.com\/rblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radio3k.com\/rblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radio3k.com\/rblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radio3k.com\/rblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/radio3k.com\/rblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110,"href":"https:\/\/radio3k.com\/rblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions\/110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radio3k.com\/rblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radio3k.com\/rblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radio3k.com\/rblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}