November 10, 2008

The Unfair Fairness Doctrine
Lee Ellis


Now that the Left controls our government, there may well be a stronger effort made to stop the opposition from Talk Radio, a plan to drive Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Laura Ingraham, Glenn Beck and other conservatives off the air by reviving the Fairness Doctrine. Thus, I think that once again we need to look at the reasoning behind the original doctrine: why it made sense when it was instituted but is unnecessary now.

Do you remember what our media was like many decades ago? I am sure that many of you are too young to go back more than two decades, so let me explain, and to remind some people who might be older, what this broadcast veteran remembers.

Before television, our radio stations were basically those that belonged to or were affiliated with the networks, and so most of them carried dramas, called "soap operas," during the day and celebrity shows all evening. These were the days of Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Milton Berle, and dramas like Gangbusters and Gunsmoke. It was not until 1948 that I was able to buy my first black and white TV set, with a screen size of only 10 inches. In those days we did not have cable TV or computers. Thus the networks slowly switched all their nightly radio programs over to evening television. However, to receive these programs, we had to install huge antennas on our rooftops. If we lived in a major metropolitan city, we might be able to see a maximum of three TV stations; if we lived on the outskirts or in a suburb, we were lucky to be able to receive just one TV station.

It was then, according to the Museum of Broadcasting, that the FCC took the view, in 1949, that station licensees were "public trustees," and as such had an obligation to afford reasonable opportunity for discussion of contrasting points of view on controversial issues of public importance. The Commission later held that stations were also obligated to actively seek out issues of importance to their community and air programming that addressed those issues. This was understandable back then, because it was feared that broadcast owners could dominate the public with their own personal political views.

The Museum of Broadcasting further reminds us, “The fairness doctrine ran parallel to Section 315 of the Communications Act of 1937 which required stations to offer ‘equal opportunity’ to all legally qualified political candidates for any office if they had allowed any person running in that office to use the station. The attempt was to balance – to force an even handedness. Section 315 exempted news programs, interviews and documentaries. But the doctrine would include such efforts. Another major difference should be noted here: Section 315 was federal law, passed by Congress. The fairness doctrine was simply FCC policy.â€