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The Fairness Doctrine has been back in discussion after a report showing the dominance of conservative talk radio on the public airwaves. The report concluded...
91 percent of the political talk radio programming on the stations owned by the top five commercial station owners was conservative, and only 9 percent was progressive.This has led some Democrats like John Kerry, Dick Durbin, Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, and Dennis Kucinich to suggest the Fairness Doctrine be revived. This led to Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) to introduce an amendment banning the use of federal tax dollars to impose the Fairness Doctrine that passed overwhelmingly.
The Fairness Doctrine required equal balance on issues broadcast over public airwaves and was ended during the Reagan administration. However, the issue with the dominance of conservative talk radio is not about equal time. The issue is about media consolidation.
The past two decades have witnessed the number of major corporations that dominate television, movies, music, radio, cable, publishing and the Internet dwindle from 50 to less than two dozen, with much of the control concentrated in fewer than 10 massive conglomerates.The power to control what is broadcast on the public airwaves is in the hands of a few. A small number of corporations that control television, movies, music, radio, cable, publishing and the Internet are able to control this message. Competition is limited and can only be called what it is... a monopoly.
91% of America is not conservative and the dominance of conservative talk radio on the public airwaves is not serving the interests of a large chunk of Americans. The public airwaves are there to allow Americans to express their views and strengthens our democracy. The lack of diversity because a few own our public airwaves subverts our democracy and the free market. Congress should not be talking about reviving the Fairness Doctrine, they should revive anti-trust laws.
3 comments:
91% isn't liberal but 91% or "journalists" are, what is your solution?
91% isn't liberal but 91% of college professor's are, so what is your solution to that gross lack of fairness?
The only reason to fear speech is one fears they are wrong.
So, maybe there is a reasonable debate for anti-trust in media. I'm all for that. Why should GE, Disney, Time-Warner, Clear Channel, Gannett, etc get to have all of the media outlets? If we're going for "fairness", let's be "fair" for the entire media, not just one segment of it.
The "Fairness Doctrine" was a holdover from The New Deal and the previously recent birth of radio. Keep it resigned to the scrap heap of history.
According the Wikipedia the fairness doctrine was "introduced at the beginning of anti-Communist hysteria in the US in 1949." Which is just more reason not to bring it back.
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