AIM Asks that Broadcasters' Freedom Be Preserved

In a statement on Monday, Accuracy in Media (AIM) editor Cliff Kincaid warned that some Democrats in Congress are proposing the re-instatement of the Fairness Doctrine and that despite the FCC chairman's strong recommendation against such a move, more needs to be done to protect America's freedom of speech on the airwaves.

The Fairness Doctrine was a federal government regulatory program begun in the late 1920s to ensure that all talk radio broadcasts -- and later on, when it became appropriate, television broadcasts -- in the United States were "in the public's best interests". The Doctrine was used by the U.S. government to shut down a radio program with a Socialist agenda at one point.

Another ramification of the Fairness Doctrine was the stipulation that all radio and TV talk shows aired "fair and balanced" content. While programs did not have to give equal time to two (or more) opposing sides of an argument or issue, they did have to show some attempt at broadcasting all sides of a story. In other words, there could be no such thing as a talk show with a biased viewpoint, regardless of what that viewpoint was or how well argued for.

As an example, if there was a guest on a show who was in favor of a woman's right to choose whether or not to have an abortion, the show had an obligation to also air the perspective of at least one "Pro Lifer".

The Supreme Court refused to shoot down the Doctrine on the grounds of its being a violation of First Amendment Rights, saying that it was a "necessary" regulation that actually protected free speech by giving everyone a fair hearing.

But the critics of the Doctrine understood that the federal government was permitted to monitor the content of radio and TV and could effectively silence any perspective that it wanted to. Under Jimmy Carter, the scope of the Doctrine's regulatory powers was diminished. President Reagan's administration abolished it entirely in 1987, saying it was out of date.