The history of FCC use against political opponents does go back to Roosevelt’s FCC ruling it was unfair for a New England chain of stations to editorialize against Franklin Roosevelt.
When Truman was around the FCC went after George Richards, the radio station owner (Detroit, Cleveland, Los Angeles) who put Coughlin on the air in the 1930s, alleging his news programs were biased against liberals and Democrats. Richards died as the case dragged on.
Kennedy planned to use fairness complaints to shut down conservative commentators and preachers who bought radio and television time in the early 1960’s to criticize him.
Johnson inherited the operation and it was used to great effect to harass conservative broadcasters who supported Goldwater in the 1964 election.
The in Nixon’s time fairness rulings came down against the liberal media (NBC News) and conservative radio preachers who advocated a military win in Vietnam. NBC won a partial victory in court but the conservative preachers lost with one radio station taken off the air.
Nixon’s supporters in the conservative movement of the time called for “fair and balanced” news. Even Phyllis Schlafly commented in favor of the Fairness Doctrine.
THERE IS A HISTORY OF BOTH PARTIES USING THE FCC AS A POLITICAL WEAPON AGAINST OPPONENTS AND THE LATEST ACTION FITS THAT TO A TEE.
[ THERE IS A HISTORY OF BOTH PARTIES USING THE FCC AS A POLITICAL WEAPON AGAINST OPPONENTS AND THE LATEST ACTION FITS THAT TO A TEE. ]
This is why they both hate the tea party, it really isn’t BOTH parties that is the problem it is the deep seated ESTABLISHMENT on BOTH sides that is the problem...