Let’s face it. Some congressional Democrats want to bring back the Fairness Doctrine. (Conservatives call it the “Censorship Doctrine) You can add Iowa Senator Tom Harkin to that list. Listen to what he said here and read the transcript from the Bill Press Radio Show below:
BILL PRESS: And, thanks for your leadership, thanks for your good work, it's great to have you there Senator. And, great to have you on the show. Appreciate it.
SENATOR TOM HARKIN (D-IA): Well, anytime – just let me know Bill. I love being with you, and thanks again for all you do to get the truth and the facts out there. By the way, I read your Op-Ed in the Washington Post the other day. I ripped it out, I took it into my office and said 'there you go, we gotta get the Fairness Doctrine back in law again.'
BILL PRESS: Alright, well good for you. You know, we gotta work on that, because they are just shutting down progressive talk from one city after another. All we want is, you know, some balance on the airwaves, that's all. You know, we're not going to take any of the conservative voices off the airwaves, but just make sure that there are a few progressives and liberals out there, right?
SENATOR TOM HARKIN (D-IA): Exactly, and that's why we need the fair -- that's why we need the Fairness Doctrine back.
BILL PRESS: We'll work on that together. Hey, thanks, Senator! Always good to talk to you.
SENATOR TOM HARKIN (D-IA): Thanks Bill, see you, bye.
What is the Fairness Doctrine. Read more here . Below is a Baptist Press article on the potential effect it could have on conservative media outlets.
Conservative attorney Jay Sekulow hosted a television program during the 1980s under the watchful eye of the now-extinct Fairness Doctrine, and he doesn't want to go back.
Every program had to be divided equally when discussing controversial issues.
"I had representatives from [People for the] American Way, the ACLU, National Organization for Women on the broadcast -- which, if you're doing a Hannity & Colmes type of [program], it would be one thing, but we really weren't trying to do that," said Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice. "We were trying to do more of an educational [program]."
Sekulow made his comments Feb. 9 during a panel discussion with other conservative leaders at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention. The NRB -- an association of mostly conservative Christian radio and television communicators -- was meeting for the first time since President Obama took office and Democrats strengthened their legislative majorities. It also was the first meeting in years in which the re-implementation of the Fairness Doctrine -- or a similar regulation under a different name -- seemed a real possibility. In recent weeks several Democratic senators, including Tom Harkin of Iowa and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, have expressed interested in bring the Fairness Doctrine back.
Repealed by the FCC in 1987, the Fairness Doctrine required TV and radio broadcasters to give equal time to both sides of a controversial issue. In repealing the rule, the FCC said at the time that instead of encouraging stations to present both sides of issues, the Fairness Doctrine had led those stations to avoid controversial issues altogether.
Conservative talk show host Sean Hannity has made the Fairness Doctrine a target on his broadcasts, and his website has a picture of Stabenow, along with her Washington office phone number. Hannity repeatedly has said he won't let the government force him to change his program. But that may not matter, said panelist and conservative attorney Larry Secrest, who predicts that stations simply would drop Hannity's program and others like it rather than face FCC scrutiny.
[Hannity] would be willing to fight the good fight, but the stations that he's carried on may not be willing to fight the good fight," Secrest said. "Many of those are not religious stations and they're not even owned by conservative owners. They're just profit-maximizing."
The panel agreed that Christian talk radio could be a target under the Fairness Doctrine, since much of its content revolves around often-controversial cultural issues such as abortion and homosexuality. Christian radio flourished after the repeal of the old doctrine.
Sekulow envisioned a scenario in which a radio program such as "Janet Parshall's America" would have to invite a pro-choice leader on the air in order to discuss pro-life issues -- with all of it being paid for by listener contributions. Much of Christian radio is listener-funded.
By the way, during the presidential campaign, a spokesman for then candidate Obama said he does not support bringing it back. Read more here.
Liberal Democrats may be itching to bring this back but does a President Obama really want a partisan fight on his hands if he sided with Nancy Pelosi et al on this issue? A fight over the Fairness Doctrine would probably end up being a major distraction for the Obama administration.
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