Senators pushing for return of equal-time rules

Reuters ^ | November 26, 2008 | Paul Bond

[abb]

The Fairness Doctrine, which forced broadcasters to offer equal time to both sides of controversial issues, was abolished in 1987, paving the way for talk radio to take the opinionated -- and popular -- form it has today.

Now, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and such influential Democratic senators as Barbara Boxer and Chuck Schumer are pushing for its return, or something like it. Could the equal-time provisions pull a Don Imus and make a radio comeback?

It could, industry insiders say. And the government-mandated programing restrictions that come with it could hobble an already struggling industry. Talk-radio hosts are unlikely to accept a new Fairness Doctrine without a fight, though. Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are among those already railing against it daily.

By some estimates, conservatives on talk radio dominate liberals by a ratio of 10-to-1, hence the call by some liberals to bring back the Fairness Doctrine. But Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) inserted language into the Federal Communications Commission's current budget barring it from being reinstated this year.

With the year drawing to an end and Barack Obama moving into the White House, talk about the Fairness Doctrine has heated up. Obama likely will name a new FCC chairman and make Democrats a majority on the five-person panel for the first time in eight years.

snip

[abb]

According to Reuters...

[Travis McGee]

Welcome to the USSA, comrade. You must learn to love Big Sister.

[villagerjoel]

Well that didn´t take very long did it?

[BenLurkin]

offer equal time to both sides of controversial issues,

Starts with a false assumption -- that there are "two sides" to any "issue".

Political and social discourse is a lot more complex that that!

[pnh102]

Censorship at its finest.

[steelyourfaith]

At some point a line has to be drawn against the left.

[Da Coyote]

The civil war is coming.

[rollo tomasi]

[BenLurkin]

conservatives on talk radio dominate liberals by a ratio of 10-to-1,

Becasue the listening public PREFES them 10 to 1.

That's how the radio stations make money!

[abb]

ping

[sickoflibs]

This is about the 100th post on fairness doctrine I have seen here in past few weeks based democrats quotes from Spring. The feds cannot tell radio stations what to broadcast.

Pelosi has her eyes on buying republican support for Obama’s socialist agenda. That’s the real threat. And McCain cutting amnesty deal with Reid. These things will destroy our party for decades (the sellouts)

This ‘doctrine’ stuff is going no place. Just getting freepers stirred up for nothing. Look how close the Georgia senate election polls are. In 1993 republicans creamed democrats in 2 senate special elections. If we cant win this we are really screwed as a party, Heck, we need dems to push fairness doctrine to stir up resistance to democrats.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Welcome to the USSA, comrade. You must learn to love Big Sister."

I think the liberals need to be VERY careful here, because this legislation just "might" also be applied to the left-biased (by their own admission) major media.

[steelyourfaith]

The civil war is coming.

The left can not be permitted to stifle opposition dissent by trampling on the First Amendment of the Constitution.

[SumProVita]

“I think the liberals need to be VERY careful here, because this legislation just “might” also be applied to the left-biased (by their own admission) major media.”

I agree.....and there are some good, conservative lawyers who can help with this.

[Le Chien Rouge]

Just a Question-—If our favorite talk show hosts are “silienced” by the FD, can Rush and company go to satellite radio or does the FCC control them also?????

[abb]

Satellite radio does not submit to FCC control, to my knowledge.

[B Knotts]

Reuters screws up again.

The equal time rule never went away. It involves giving equal time to candidates.

The fairness doctrine is an entirely different thing.

[Sgt_Schultze]

A reinstatement of the censorship doctrine might allow for challenging television liberalism. By their choices of stories, tv news makes a deliberate choice to silence a point of view. There is nothing on television about birth-certificate-gate, opposition to the religion of global warming, Zero's intentional acceptance of foreign campaign contributions and any of a thousand things embarrassing to the far left. Maybe our challenging local stations for equal time to describe the stories they are censoring would be a viable attack to their propaganda network.

[Man from Oz]

I have been following the demise of the Sirius/XM stock and there has been a fair bit of discussion about this doctrine and if it would lure Rush and others like him to its airwaves should it be implemented.

As a long hold shareholder, it has been depressing to watch the stock value of this company go to almost zero. Great programming (minus Howard and Oprah) and no commercials (for the most part).