Comm. Daily had a good article on July 16, “Republican Fairness Doctrine Measure Sidetracked,” concerning a measure that would have blocked the FCC from reinstating the Fairness Doctrine:
Durbin rejected an amendment to the defense authorization bill (HR-1585), offered by Republican Sen. Norm Coleman of Minn., that would block the FCC from reinstating the doctrine that was banned in 1987. Durbin favors reinstatement, which has provoked an uproar among Republicans fearful the doctrine would be used to shut down conservative talk radio, Coleman said. The fairness doctrine required broadcasters to present balanced viewpoints on controversial issues (CD July 2 p1).
Conservative talk radio has flourished because the market “says ‘I want to listen,'” Coleman said, and consumers have a choice — they can turn off the dial. But government should not be regulating content, he argued: Bringing back the Fairness Doctrine would be a “very, very bad idea.” Durbin said Americans should hear both sides of a story since the airwaves are public property: “What if the marketplace does not provide opportunities to hear both points of view?” Durbin mused whether a government role would then be appropriate.
Despite the tendency of really bad ideas to return, and return again to the communications sphere, I will venture to say that we probably don’t need to worry about this one. The evidence that the Fairness Doctrine resulted in a lack of airing of controversial ideas, as well as the deliberate harassment of stations critical of the administration then in power (From Kennedy to Nixon) is pretty strong. Dream on… the Supreme Court might even overturn Red Lion.
But note the persistence of the ideas that gave rise to the doctrine–concern with market failures and the imprecise idea that the government is serving as steward for the “public property” of spectrum. I’m not sure what the lesson is here for free-marketers. Give up on addressing these more abstract concepts, since nothing seems to “stick?” Or try harder?
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