Tuesday, August 9, 2011

The Constitution says a free press is a guardian of our civil liberties! Does the "Fairness Doctrine"...?

Radio and TV broadcasters are granted licenses to use the public airways. They don't 'own' it. Each broadcasting corporation is granted a federal charter. The charter spells out what they can and cannot do when broadcasting and what they do must be 'in the public's interest'. Broadcasters have no right of 'ownership'. They can accept the rules of the charter granting entity, or reject it. If they reject the rules the charter can be withdrawn and granted to some other corporation. In the 1930 when radio got its start one of the rules was the 'Fainess Doctrine'. For the most part radio operators abided by this rule. During the Reagan administration the FCC abandoned this rule and we saw a mive rise in unabashed 'right wing radio' and later the FOX Network. Currently the public airways are used for mostly right wing propaganda and disinformation. Restoring the Fairness Doctrine will do what the name implies....it will bring 'fairness' back to the public airways. Why anyone would oppose this is a real mystery. No kiddin'!

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