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Fairness Doctrine Stirs Angst Among the Right
By AMY SCHATZ
Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- Could Democrats be planning to bring back the Fairness Doctrine, a rule that requires broadcasters to air both sides of controversial issues? Conservatives believe so and have been taking to radio shows and blogs to denounce the idea.
Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico raised the prospect on a talk show recently, saying, "For many, many years we operated under a Fairness Doctrine in this country, and I think the country was well-served." Since then, conservative media have brought up the issue repeatedly, worried about likely Democratic congressional gains and a the possibility that Sen. Barack Obama will win the White House.
"They don't want balanced programming on a radio station," Rush Limbaugh said on his Oct. 22 radio show, according to a transcript. "They want no conservative programming on a radio station."
Sen. Obama's campaign has said repeatedly that it doesn't want to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. But conservatives question how far he would go to stop it, if a Democrat-controlled Congress were to pass legislation to bring it back.
The doctrine rose from efforts in the 1950s by the Federal Communications Commission to ensure broadcasters were acting as public trustees and using the airwaves to air issues important to their communities.
During the Reagan administration, the Republican-controlled FCC held a different view. In 1985, the agency issued a report that said the doctrine could actually have a "chilling effect" on free speech. The FCC dumped the rule two years later, after a federal appeals court found Congress hadn't mandated the Fairness Doctrine and that it was up to the agency to decide if it was still needed.
Should the doctrine be reinstated, a broadcaster could theoretically have trouble getting its FCC license renewed if it didn't give time for the opposite side of an issue to respond.
"As things now stand, if Barack Obama is elected, he could simply snap his fingers and we would have a Fairness Doctrine because he selects the FCC chairman, and with a majority vote, the FCC could declare the re-imposition of it," said L. Brent Bozell III, founder of the Media Research Center, a conservative media watchdog.
Democrats have complained about the rise of conservative talk radio, but they have had little success putting the rule back into place. In some ways, technology has made it less relevant, since the Internet gives commentators on both sides ample space to talk about political ideas and controversial issues.
"Many conservatives are worried about the wrong things," said Adam Thierer, a senior fellow at the Progress & Freedom Foundation, a right-leaning think tank. "They're so worried about the old Fairness Doctrine, they're missing that the battle lines have shifted and the issues now are different."
Some conservatives view a proposed FCC rule that would require broadcast stations to have more contact with the communities they serve as a back-door effort to reinstate parts of the Fairness Doctrine. The rule would require broadcast stations to have their main studio inside their licensed area and to regularly meet with a community advisory board about their programming. The proposal is pending at the agency, which isn't likely to rule on it until the next administration.
Media-reform groups such as Free Press favor such new localism requirements and other changes to encourage more diverse voices on the air, even though they say they aren't interested in bringing back the Fairness Doctrine.
"It's been off the books for 20 years and it seems to me to be a scare tactic among conservatives to rally the conservative base," said Craig Aaron, communications director for Free Press. "We're not encouraging bringing back the Fairness Doctrine and won't be pushing for it."
Write to Amy Schatz at [email protected]
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