"We live in an age of satellite radio, of broadband, of blogs, of Internet, of cable TV, of broadcast TV. There is no limitation on the ability of anyone from any political persuasion to get their ideas set forth," Mr. Coleman argued in support of the Broadcaster Freedom Act of 2007. "The public in the end will choose what to listen to." Full Story »
Posted by Chris J. Breisch
A decent report on political maneuvering over Republican attempts to prevent the FCC from reinstating the Fairness Doctrine, which required broadcasters present opposing points of view on political issues, but was scrapped by the FCC twenty years ago.
The only people whose opinions are presented in a meaningful way are conservative Republicans, while the Democrats are mentioned primarily to say they disagree or to mention what they opposed or "did."
If the fairness doctrine is implemented it will only accelerate the decline of broadcast TV.
The job of a TV program is to please its audience. Congress can demand "fairness". It cannot command the audience.
Fairly objective report for the Unification Church's newspaper. It really misses the point of the debate over the fairness doctrine. Imposing the fairness doctrine would only mandate what we already have: freedom to air points of view that are objectively untrue and sometimes harmful. What is really needed is to re-regulate ownership, to diminish conglomeration, to strengthen public service requirements, and to remove the profit motive -- at least from broadcast journalism. Information should not be thought of as a salable commodity geared toward consumers, but chosen for its significance to citizens.
Straight forward account of quashing of an anti Fairness Doctrine amendment. Revival of the long dead Fairness Doctrine would require broadcasters to carry political commentary that someone (govt? FCC?) thinks is good for listeners, rather than the current system where the broadcasters carry programming that the audience likes to hear.
This is a straightforward report on the efforts to raise the issue of the right of the Federal government to impose political balance on broadcasting. It focuses on the specific effort made in the Senate to prevent one such mechanism, the Federal Communications Commission's involvement in setting such requirements, that was used in the past.
Where the fairness doctrine is still needed is in the Public Schools..............I will suggest that the Fairness doctrine was unconstitutional, but had some rationale when there was only 2 radio shows, and one television chanel in many markets. It remains unconstitutional, and has no rationale when there are 250+ television channels on cable or sattelite, and far more radio stations and pod casts than that.
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