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Is a Fairness Doctrine Needed Today?: It's Unfair and Unnecessary
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11820 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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1 / 1994 |
1,503 Words |
| Author
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David Bartlett
David Bartlett is president of the Radio-Television News
Directors Association in Washington, D.C. |
Arguing against something called the fairness doctrine is no easy task. How in the world could anyone be opposed to fairness? Indeed, the fairness doctrine is a deceptively simple and seductive concept.
Like so many apparently well-intentioned government regulations, the fairness doctrine looks great on paper. But when the politicians and special-interest groups get their hands on it, watch out. Free speech is in peril, and government control of the media is just over the horizon.
No matter what the politicians and special-interest groups supporting the fairness doctrine may claim, it really has nothing to do with fairness. The fairness doctrine is all about control. It is a powerful weapon that the government can use to control criticism and smother controversy. The fairness doctrine would give the government the power to decide what ordinary Americans are allowed to see and hear on radio and television. It is hardly a coincidence that the latest rush of enthusiasm for the fairness doctrine on Capitol Hill comes at a time of increasing public criticism of Congress, criticism fueled in no small measure by outspoken radio talk show hosts.
Nobody likes to be criticized, of course, especially powerful members of Congress. If the fairness doctrine were to return, the talk show hosts who make their living rattling the cages of powerful politicians would find themselves the first targets of enforcement. Any station that continues to carry controversial hosts like Rush Limbaugh or G. Gordon Liddy better be prepared to spend big money fending off fairness complaints. Very few stations can afford to take that kind of risk. Most would be forced to cancel their controversial programming, a clear victory for those who don't like hearing themselves criticized and have the power to put a stop to it.
USED TO THREATEN AND SILENCE ALL OPPONENTS
But don't think for a moment that the fairness doctrine is just some liberal plot to silence conservative critics. Through its long and sordid history, the fairness doctrine has been used with equal enthusiasm by politicians of both parties and special-interest advocates of every ideological persuasion to threaten, intimidate, and, all too often, silence opposing points of view.
In the 1960s, the Kennedy and Johnson administrations used the fairness doctrine openly and aggressively to silence rightwing religious
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