[BC] Fairness doctrine by another name? aka censorship?

[tpt at literock93r.com]

Donna Halper wrote:

"Not to worry, Willie-- the Fairness Doctrine did NOT mandate that if
you had a Christian station, it had to include equal time for Jews,
Muslims, and Buddhists!!! 8-)   I am not sure how much the members of
this list want to know about the FD and I don't wanna bore
anyone.  But so help me, some of my friends on the right are really
really mis-stating what the FD said and what it did."

Comforting nonsense, but religious broadcasters ( and future religious  
broadcasters like Willie) have much to fear from the resurgence of the  
fairness doctrine.

Remember the seminal case on the fairness doctrine was Red Lion  
Broadcasting Co. v. Federal Communications Commission, 395 U.S. 367  
(1969).

 From the case at 395 US 371:

"The Red Lion Broadcasting Company is licensed to operate a  
Pennsylvania radio station, WGCB. On November 27, 1964, WGCB carried a  
15-minute broadcast by the Reverend Billy James Hargis as part of a  
"Christian Crusade" series. A book by Fred J. Cook entitled "Goldwater  
-- Extremist on the Right" was discussed by Hargis, who said that Cook  
had been fired by a newspaper for making false charges against city  
officials; that Cook had then worked for a Communist-affiliated  
publication; that he had defended Alger Hiss and attacked J. Edgar  
Hoover and the Central Intelligence Agency, and that he had now  
written a "book to smear and destroy Barry Goldwater." When Cook heard  
of the broadcast, he

Page 395 U. S. 372

concluded that he had been personally attacked and demanded free reply  
time, which the station refused. After an exchange of letters among  
Cook, Red Lion, and the FCC, the FCC declared that the Hargis  
broadcast constituted a personal attack on Cook; that Red Lion had  
failed to meet its obligation under the fairness doctrine as expressed  
in Times-Mirror Broadcasting Co., 24 P & F Radio Reg. 404 (1962), to  
send a tape, transcript, or summary of the broadcast to Cook and offer  
him reply time, and that the station must provide reply time whether  
or not Cook would pay for it."

This was 1969, remember.  A different era, with different values. And  
many fewer lawyers dedicated to imposing their will upon the  
uneducated and unenlightened masses. Besides, most judges back then  
had lived through at least part of the depression and World War II;  
many were veterans. Not the most sympathetic audience for radical  
lawyers advancing their ideology by lawsuit.

Back in 1969, the typical computer occupied most of a room.  
Communication was by telephone and letter; only the newspapers had  
"facsimile" machines.

The current crop of liberal ideologue attorneys who are now running  
our government were the college students of the sixties.  I went to  
college with these clowns, and suffered through a law school coup (as  
a law student) run by their older brethren.  They are the  
(self-appointed) defenders of the downtrodden, they are "right" and if  
you are "right" (politically), your values are of no value and must be  
suppressed for the good of all.

(They abound in academia: my girl friend, the teacher turned grad  
student, is a conservative trying to get her masters in sociology at a  
nearby state university. One professor refused to be on the committee  
overseeing her thesis progress, calling her to "biased." Another  
suggested she attend a Christian college.)

Notice Red Lion was about a syndicated broadcast by a preacher  
attacking a book written by someone on the left.  Notice that author  
did not bring a suit for slander (as a public figure he would have had  
a tough time making a case), but instead attempted to use the fairness  
doctrine to intimidate all of the radio stations that broadcast this  
show.

Fast Forward to the 21st century. Imagine Move-on recruiting an army  
of lefties through the internet to monitor Rush, Hannity and Beck.  
Imagine the stations being besieged by these folk demanding to riffle  
through the public file. Imagine hundreds of complaints being filed  
with the Commission.  Far fetched? Gee, didn't some right-wing groups  
do just the same thing when some of them thought there was too much  
nudity in a TV program that aired at 9 instead of 10 PM?

Then there will be the back-door regulation.  Interestingly enough,  
the early protesters to the proposed regulations for 24/7 manned  
studios were...the minority broadcasters, who bought up suburban FM's,  
run on a shoestring, in order to have a voice in the community.

I remember doing ascertainment surveys.  Biggest joke in the  
world--most folk complained not about local radio, but the local  
newspaper.  Advisory boards?
I'm on a federally mandated "advisory board" run by the state human  
services department.  It concerns the mechanism for setting child  
support orders, I am one of the "civilian" representatives,  
representing the state bar association.
Big joke--the board is stacked with state bureaucrats who consistently  
out-vote us "civilian" stakeholders.

So now we will have advisory boards filled with the ideologues, not  
real people, who will attempt to tell us how to run our business. I  
own an AC station; if I listened to every loud-mouth in our area (WV)  
I would have switched to bluegrass a long time ago.  And gone broke in  
competition with the four other C&W stations in our area.

And, in the end, the FCC can have its fairness doctrine in place  
without ever bringing a complaint under it. That way the inevitable  
1st Amendment objection never gets filed in court. Just keep showing  
up at those stations running talk, and nit-pick the public file to  
death (This "issues" list was filed one day late..Off with their  
heads!!!). Harass them on their EEO efforts. Demand to see some  
statement on EVERY agency advertising contract that the AGENCY does  
not discriminate against blacks and Hispanics in ad buys. (We get  
orders placed by E-mail from the agencies. Legal contract? yes, under  
first year contract law.
But where do we put the boilerplate non-discrimination notice?).

We are entering a very dangerous period in our country's history. We  
need the government to stay out of the marketplace of ideas.