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Once More, With Feeling: The Fairness Doctrine Is Not Fair, Nor Is It Needed
from the please-make-it-go-away dept
A year and a half ago, there was this sudden burst of attention from some suggesting that the long-discredited and discarded concept of the "fairness doctrine" needed to be brought back. The fairness doctrine is basically a requirement that whenever a TV station covers a controversial topic, it's required, by law, to give equal time to a "response." This, some people think, makes the coverage "fair." It does not. All it does is presume that there are two, and only two, sides to any issue -- and that people are too stupid to figure out that some stuff you see on TV may not tell you the whole story.
Usually, it's pushed by some group that feels "its side" isn't getting enough attention. Of course, rather than realize that maybe they're not doing a very good job packaging up that message to make it understandable or interesting (or, maybe, that they're just wrong), they feel the need to demand time on TV for a response. Yet, these days, when anyone can "broadcast" any content they want, there's even less of a need for a fairness doctrine on TV. It's a restriction on speech, by determining what a TV show needs to include in a report. That's not fair at all.
Thus, we were pretty surprised some in Congress actually decided to push for a reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine last year. Thankfully, the effort went nowhere, helped in part by the FCC pointing out that, these days, there's just no need for a return of the Fairness Doctrine. No side has any trouble getting its word out. There's no shortage of outlets to do so. If your message isn't getting out there, it's certainly not for a lack of available channels.
And yet... here they come again. Reports are spreading that Rep. Nancy Pelosi is pushing to bring back the Fairness Doctrine once again. And, even worse, others seem to be trying to beyond even the Fairness Doctrine, with a variety of ideas that all seem to involve having the government own or regulate content. It's stunning, in this day and age, with all the outlets out there for someone to get out their message that they would feel they need to turn to the government to force their message on others.
