Posted by: McQ on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 Yesterday I appealed to Europe to say "no" to a law which would make Holocaust denial a crime. Today the appeal is focused on the US. Say "no" to the resurrection of the "Fairness Doctrine": Over the weekend, the National Conference for Media Reform was held in Memphis, TN, with a number of notable speakers on hand for the event. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) made an surprise appearance at the convention to announce that he would be heading up a new House subcommittee which will focus on issues surrounding the Federal Communications Commission.The meeting was heavily funded by George Soros and had quite an array of the "Who's Who" of the extreme left: Reaching new levels of hysteria, Rep. Maurice Hinchey said the survival of America was itself at stake because "neo-fascist" and "neo-con" talk-show hosts led by Rush Limbaugh had facilitated the "illegal" war in Iraq and were complicit in President Bush's repeated violations of the Constitution, such as by detaining terrorists. He warned that the "right-wing oriented media" were now preparing the way for Bush to wage war on Iran and Syria.Requiring broadcasters to, as Kucinich argues, "present controversial topics in a fair and honest manner" means government will determine what is controversial and what is a "fair and honest" manner. And apparently, Rep. Hinchey, the chairman of the "Future of American Media Caucus" in the House and new chair of the subcommittee with oversight of the FCC believes it is time to impose more regulation on at least one part of the media. Not the job of Congress. Nor is it the job of the FCC. Oh, I know they can write law which gives them the power, but it is an anathema to any freedom loving person and a clear attempt to limit speech. Essentially the doctrine was aimed only toward radio, not newspapers or TV. Radio, of course, has become a dominant bastion of mostly conservative thought. Although there have been attempts by liberals to actually break into the seeming strangle hold conservatives have on talk radio (such as Air America) they have had little real success as the market just doesn't seem interested in their product to this point. Although similar laws had been declared unconstitutional when Congress had attempted to apply them to newspapers, the Supreme Court upheld the doctrine for radio in Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v FCC (1969). The SC's argument was that radio stations could be regulated in this way because of "the limited nature of the public airwave spectrum". That, of course, has been overcome by technology (internet, satellite, shortwave, etc.) and, I would think, no longer provides a basis for approval (no matter how specious such reasoning was previously). In 1987, the FCC under Ronald Reagan abolished the doctrine by a 4-0 vote and it's abolition was upheld by DC Circuit Court of Appeals in its Syracuse Peace Council decision.. The FCC argued the doctrine had grown to "inhibit rather than enhance debate" and suggested that, "due to the many media voices in the marketplace at the time, the doctrine was probably unconstitutional". Congressional Democrats have tried, at various times in the past, to reinstate the doctrine but have been unsuccessful. In my estimation we should do everything within our power to ensure they're unsuccessful again. Radio, as with all media markets, should be just that, markets. It is the consumers of the market's products which should direct them, not the government's arbitrary idea of what is "controversial" and what is "fair". Oh, and this is another in a long line of reasons why libertarians and liberals aren't going to "fuse" anytime soon. |
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