Comments on: Don’t Worry about the Fairness Doctrine. No, Wait, Strike That.

By: Ted

Ted — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:18:25 +0000

Localism is SOCIALISM!

By: Adam Thierer

Adam Thierer — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 03:45:14 +0000

Brett, just so I'm clear... I am a big fan of media localism as a journalistic value. But when regulators say they must micro-manage local media markets and providers in pursuit of that goal, I have problems.

Importantly, however, there is a very legitimate question about how much "localism" the public really demands these days. I've written about that point here before. See these two essays:

http://techliberation.com/2008/09/09/local-is-j...

http://techliberation.com/2008/07/07/our-contin...

By: Brett Glass

Brett Glass — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 03:26:08 +0000

"Localism" is not, in and of itself, a bad thing -- nor is it equivalent to a "fairness doctrine." Rather, there are strong arguments that preserving local voices and local content is a way of preventing market failures caused by the vast economic might of national and international media.

Nor do we need worry that localism would "kill conservative talk radio." There are plenty of local talk radio hosts who are quite conservative, and plenty of locales where the people are conservative and thus favor these hosts.

Yes, there are good reasons to be wary of government censorship and/or manipulation of the media. But this seems like a false alarm... typical, in fact, of the scare tactics of some national talk radio hosts. Hmmm.

By: Ifticar

Ifticar — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 01:06:31 +0000

Obama is a sneaky little bitch. He will tell us that he does not plan to revive the fairness doctrine while planning to kill conservative talk radio with localism.

By: Robbins Mitchell

Robbins Mitchell — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:30:25 +0000

If the Fairness Doctrine is reinstated (or reimposed),does that mean I won't be able to go on the air and say that President Nigger needs to be butt fucked with a cattle prod?

By: Localism as Hidden Fairness Doctrine? | Unfair Doctrine

Localism as Hidden Fairness Doctrine? | Unfair Doctrine — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:12:32 +0000

[...] Thierer at Technology Liberation Font: The danger is not that the Fairness Doctrine gets back on the books in the same form; it’s that [...]