Free Republic

Just 38% of U.S. voters think that the government should require all radio stations to offer equal amounts of conservative and liberal political commentary. Forty-seven percent (47%) oppose government-imposed political balance on radio stations, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Fifteen percent (15%) are not sure which course is better. These findings are a dramatic nine-point drop-off in support for the Fairness Doctrine from a survey last August when 47% said the government should require all radio and television stations to offer balanced political commentary. Only 26% of voters believe conservatives have an unfair advantage in the...

Obama Senior Adviser David Axelrod today, on Fox News Sunday, would not rule out the Obama Administration pursuing the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" to silence conservative Talk Radio. When asked about it by Chris Wallace, Axelrod said he did "not have an answer now," because he would leave that for the new FCC head and President Obama to talk about. That is not exactly a clear denial that they will attempt to silence the free speech rights of conservatives on radio. I really think they are going to pursue some form of censorship to stop people like Rush Limbaugh and Sean...

Remember when the Left laughed at conservatives’ concerns over the Fairness Doctrine? Barack Obama already said he opposed the reimposition of the FCC rule, they said. After all, Obama’s campaign gave this definitive statement in June 2008: “Senator Obama does not support re-imposing the Fairness Doctrine on broadcasters,” said press secretary Michael Ortiz in an e-mail to B&C late Wednesday. “He considers this debate to be a distraction from the conversation we should be having about opening up the airwaves and modern communications to as many diverse viewpoints as possible,” said Ortiz. As our friend Jim Geraghty reminds us, all...

(CNSNews.com) – Acting Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Copps says he doesn’t support bringing back the controversial Fairness Doctrine, but he does think government has a role in enforcing media “diversity.” That role includes re-examining licensing and other regulations for radio stations -- including AM stations dominated by talk radio -- to make them “more reflective” of public interests.

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, is pushing for return of the Fairness Doctrine even as some of his Democratic colleagues are quietly backing off the idea. Originally instituted in 1949 by the FCC, the Fairness Doctrine required broadcasters over the public airwaves to give equal time to opposing political views.

FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell had a message for Democrats, or anyone else contemplating trying to re-impose the fairness doctrine: The move could undermine the justification for existing localism and children's TV regulations, and could be used against public radio. He also suggested it would not come back wearing a big sign saying, "it's me, the fairness doctrine," but would likely instead be rebranded. Those were some of the observations McDowell provided Wednesday in a speech to The Media Institute in Washington, which is a strong opponent of the doctrine. A copy of the speech was supplied to B&C. In the...

Get ready for an unprecedented government assault upon the First Amendment. President Obama will be at the heart of it. using his version of the “Fairness Doctrine”. In 1949, the Federal Communications Commission created the “Fairness Doctrine,” which mandated that federally-licensed radio and television stations “provide a reasonable opportunity for the presentation of contrasting viewpoints” on “vitally important controversial issues.” Rather than be deluged with demands for air time by aggrieved listeners, the broadcasters generally opted not to cover controversial issues, thereby leaving the public less informed. In 1987, President Reagan’s FCC jettisoned the Fairness Doctrine, and conservative talk radio...

McCain-Feingold and the Fairness Doctrine hurt more than speakers’ rights.We usually think of freedom of speech as involving the right of speakers to speak, whether through public addresses, in writing, or over radio and television airwaves. But the courts have recognized an additional dimension to First Amendment free speech rights: the right to listen and watch. This right takes center stage in a current challenge to the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law and could play a role in the debate about the Fairness Doctrine. Every circuit appeals court has acknowledged the right to listen and watch. For example, in 2003’s Rossignol...

Those of us who fear a revival, directly or indirectly, of the Fairness Doctrine need to be aware of the following exchanges that occurred during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s January 15th confirmation hearing for Attorney General-Designate Eric Holder. The first comes from the senior Republican on the panel, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania: SPECTER:  Mr. Holder, there had been suggestions for a revival of the so-called Fairness Doctrine, and my question to you is do you think that as a matter of public policy, the so-called Fairness Doctrine ought to be reinstated? HOLDER:  Senator, that's a toughie. I've not given an...

Washington-- President Barack Obama on Thursday named FCC Democrat Michael Copps as acting chairman, replacing Kevin Martin two days after he resigned on the final day of the Bush administration.

telecommunications company has confirmed for this columnist that its vice president for policy—who is also an Obama donor and a former lobbyist—is advising Barack Obama’s transition team on telecom policy. Obama’s transition team, which has failed to disclose this executive’s involvement, happens to have proposed a significant change in telecom policy that will profit that very company, called Clearwire. By pushing to delay the long-scheduled transition of television broadcasting from analog signals to digital signals, president-elect Obama is directly aiding Sprint and its partner Clearwire while hurting Verizon. Clearwire’s executive vice president for “Strategy, Policy and External Affairs” is R....

The House Democrats' $825 billion legislation released on Thursday was supposedly intended to "stimulate" the economy. Backers claimed that speedy approval was vital because the nation is in "a crisis not seen since the Great Depression" and "the economy is shutting down." That's the rhetoric. But in reality, Democrats are using the 258-page legislation to sneak Net neutrality rules in through the back door. The so-called stimulus package hands out billions of dollars in grants for broadband and wireless development, primarily in what are called "unserved" and "underserved" areas. The U.S. Department of Commerce is charged with writing checks-with-many-zeros-on-them to...

Kevin Martin, a Republican who chaired the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for four years, said on Thursday he would be leaving the agency when the new administration takes over. Martin will become a fellow at the Aspen Institute in Washington, a conservative think tank. His departure is effective Tuesday, the day U.S. President-elect Barack Obama will be sworn in. His exit will leave the normally five-member commission with one Republican and two Democrats for a time as lawmakers face a long list of new appointments to confirm. Obama is expected to name technology executive Julius Genachowski, a former FCC staffer,...

While Kevin Martin closes out his final major tour of the U.S. like a diva, the future FCC is getting closer to becoming a reality. The first FCC commissioner to leave was Deborah Taylor Tate who resigned December 30th. I hope Martin is lining up his next job because he will be replaced as FCC Chairman and the betting is that Obama Harvard bud Julius Genachowski will get the nod. That leaves Commissioners Copps and Edelstein, the highly regarded commonsense and caring commissioners who think like Obama people - about delivering competitive voice and broadband options to all Americans. Copps...