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

[Jason R.]

At the station I'm remembering, the Fairness Doctrine only alienated
listeners on all sides... of every issue.

Being in downtown, the Dem office would avidly listen specifically for
opportunities to point how there were opposing viewpoints on any and every
subject, no matter how minute, and demand their Equal Time.  They called
several times a day, until we learned our lesson.  Then they called because
we weren't saying ANYTHING.

Conservatives being, uh, conservative, just turned off the radio.   After a
while.

  It got to the point that we had liner cards reviewed by the attorneys
before we used them.  Even the weather reports had a specific format...
forget the notion of inject emotion into them "Great-looking day, sunny,
warmer highs around..."  because there are ALWAYS people out there that
might not be having such a great day, and your over the top BS has nothing
to do with the FACTS... its just your OPINION that it's a "Great looking
day" and you're not fairly representing the opinions of those in your
community who are not able to see the day the way you are"

... I think that letter is still in the public file, BTW.

Sigh. NO broadcast medium has the time or resources to try to represent
every viewpoint that may possibly arise from every and any given news
item... so they just put them out with NO insight, and you get bad,
ineffective
radio.

  Jason

> It was called "Equal Time"...
>
> Left, Right, Up, Down, didn't matter - equal time for all opposing
> viewpoints, and hefty fines if you failed to do so.
>
> On the Other Hand, it did help that if you aired a piece that was
> commentary, and failed to label it as such, you ALSO got hefty fines...
> might have been what kept the MSM half-way honest...
>