‘Fairness Doctrine’ Is A Code Name For “Censorship”

When the Fairness Doctrine was first introduced in 1949, it required licensed broadcasters to devote equal time to both sides of a controversial issue, and mandated that stations air programming addressing issues of local interest. At a time when television was in its infancy, satellite radio a fantasy, and the Internet non-existent, such rules may have had some merit. But in today’s market, with hundreds of choices in programming, such regulations are irrelevant – and nearly impossible to enforce.

But the Fairness Doctrine is more than useless – it’s counterproductive. The FCC realized 20 years ago that the law actually discouraged, rather than encouraged, more free speech. Rather than try to gauge what legally constituted “equal time” for both sides of a political contest, station owners began just dropping politically-based programming altogether. That led to the FCC’s ending enforcement of the doctrine in 1987.

The fact is that the success of conservative talk radio is a direct response to the Left’s virtual 50-year stranglehold on American media through its domination of all the major network and cable television outlets … through public broadcasting stations such as PBS and NPR … and through virtually every major American newspaper. Conservatives are simply fed up with Left-wing bias, and their heartfelt embrace of talk radio is clear evidence of their outrage.

It’s time for the Left to cut the static: Behind the calls for “regulation” and “diversity” hides a posse of political bullies who realize that they cannot compete against the likes of Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh in a free market. The left-wing’s failure to capture anything beyond a tiny niche market isn’t the fault of the FCC, nor of the dormant Fairness Doctrine. The “blame” rests with radio listeners who came, listened, and chose to tune out of “Dead Air” America.