In an overwhelming 309-115, the House shot down the FCC and the Fairness Doctrine. To be more specific the FCC cannot spend any money in 2008 to reinstate it.
The Fairness Doctrine, which required broadcasters to offer competing viewpoints in a balanced manner when presenting controversial issues.
This whole affair seems to be more of an opportunity to name call the other party and heckle then on true newsworthiness. I think what’s more important to examine is that FCC declared the Fairness Doctrine unconstitutional in 1987.
Oh wait, it looks likeBroadcast and Cable point that out.
There is currently no legislation to reinstate the doctrine, which the FCC invalidated as unconstitutional in 1987, but several Democratic senators, including Dick Durbin of Illinois, John Kerry of Massachusetts and Diane Feinstein of California had gone on record supporting at least looking into reinstating it.
I think I’m more curious as too why this was even thought about. What does it say about the American people? Is this the Democratic party thinking we aren’t smart enough to figure out differing views on our own? Or it could be a conspiracy by the Republican party to remain in power with their brainwashing machine at work? I like to think it’s some super conspiracy by both parties not to deal with the real issues at the hand. It’s much more fun to say you aren’t given due justice. It’s much harder to take a platform and address it directly. Just thinking about it, I think I’m may be for option three. All the answers lie with Kang and Kodos. Aliens just explain everything.
It is curious why anyone would deem reinstating the so called “fairness doctrine” as sensible policy. I do some consulting with the NAB on media issues and was glad to see this latest attempt foiled.
As you mentioned these efforts imply that with more options than ever, that people aren’t smart enough to seek differing views and get their news and information from a variety of sources. The doctrine didn’t make sense pre-1987 and today it is laughable with the developments in cable and satellite TV and especially online. In this media landscape placing a one-size-fits all mandate only on broadcasters is unfair. Not to mention the FCC found the doctrine led to less discussion of the controversial topics since broadcasters wanted to avoid the risk of complaints that they hadn’t covered all sides of an issue. We certainly don’t need to reinstate a poor and unfair policy like this. Thanks.
Nolan,
I completely agree. If you have any more information on the issue from your work with the NAB I’d love to read it.
[...] June 30th, 2007 in communications, politics Thanks to Raee for pointing out the Fairness Doctrine vote today. I’ve been moving and missed [...]
My apologies for the delayed response as I was out of the office last week. Here is the NAB release regarding the House vote. Included in the release is a letter from NAB Executive Vice President of Government Relations Doug Wiley that was sent to members of the House.
You may also find this article regarding the current media landscape to be interesting. Enjoy.