Comments on: Should we Bring Back the Fairness Doctrine?

By: Kris

Kris — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 08:27:56 +0000

Where did this idea originate. Certainly the history of newspaper publishing shows no sign of “fairness”. I don’t disagree with the basic idea of fairness, but wonder how to address some issues. First of all, what to do when the “other side” is clearly an irrelevant fringe or a scientifically proven falsehood. Do these deserve equal time with legitimate news issues? Secondly, and most importantly, enforcing such a doctrine means government intrusion and control of the media. Forget the counterbalances of three branches of government. If one person, party or branch manages to control the media, freedom as we know it will go the way of the Dodo bird.

By: James Parker

James Parker — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:38:07 +0000

The media blackout of any meaningful discussion of issues that people care about–when did that begin?

It certainly was in full swing by the ’80’s.

But the worst part of the blackout began in 1996, when the “CPD” was formed to keep the Presidential Debates to 2 candidates. The D’s and R’s conspired to do this after Ross Perot embarrassed them in ‘92. And big media bought in.

I don’t know about the Fairness Doctrine, or even the FCC for that matter, but the CPD has got to go.

By: Silouan Thompson

Silouan Thompson — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:52:57 +0000

So under the Fairness Doctrine, any time a radio show covers some government functionary making a statist comment, they’d have to give equal time for libertarian views to be expressed?

Cool!

Or would it mean that *only* two points of view would be permitted? So at any time the FCC could dictate the only two permissible opinions?

Scary!

By: Bugg

Bugg — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:42:06 +0000

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press” – hmm sounds familiar. Good for Ron Paul if he helped get rid of this crap.

By: Mankato

Mankato — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:06:55 +0000

I believe that Ron Paul actually helped to dismantle FD regulations back in the 1980s; ironically if it were still around Paul would have had a LOT more media coverage during his presidential campaign. FD is not a free market idea and it is an affront to free speech. What I might consider is requiring all media companies to report the names of all shareholders with greater than, say, a 1% stake in the company. This way people would know who is funding the programs they’re hearing.