Not Fair(ness)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi believes that the government should revive the Fairness Doctrine, a McCarthy-era legislation that required broadcast facilities that presented one side of a controversial public issue to give equal time to the other side. Its demise came during the Reagan administration, shortly before the rise of Rush Limbaugh to national prominence.
Many progressives, in light of the current state of talk radio in particular, agree that this reinstatement would be good for America.
They are wrong.
The revival of the Fairness Doctrine would be a disaster.
First, realize that the death of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987 is NOT responsible for the monochromatic state of American talk radio. If anything, the blame for that lies with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which allowed for the hyperconsolidation ("Clear Channelization," we can fairly call it) of the broadcast industry.
Restoring the Fairness Doctrine would be a gross abuse of the First Amendment, and would gut an industry that's scrambling to survive as it is.
That industry should survive. Its ownership should be diversified (although I'm not necessarily for re-regulation of that, either), and it should be allowed to broadcast whatever it sees fit. Anything less is a travesty and, frankly, censorship.
If you support the Fairness Doctrine, knock it off.

