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The "Fairness
Doctrine" was a charter feature of the FCC the came into
existence 1934. In 1949, it was formally adopted as an FCC rule.
It was finally done away with during the business-pushed agenda
of deregulation, defeated by a presidential veto in 1987. This
FCC regulation obliged all broadcast licensees "to cover
vitally important controversial issues of interest in their communities"
and "to provide a reasonable opportunity for the presentation
of contrasting viewpoints."
The Fairness
Doctrine was upheld as constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court
in 1969 and for over fifty years it guided the conduct of the
broadcast industry. Only in the late 80's was it abolished, unleashing
the flood of one-sided talk shows, incivility, and distortions
that are so prevalent in radio and TV. There is great irony in
the fact that one large corporation sells its news program as
"Fair and Balanced" when it is arguably the farthest
from it.
In 1969,
the Supreme Court upheld the consitutionality of the doctrine
in the case involving Red Lion Broadcasting. On their"Christian
Crusade" program, they attacked a liberal author, Fred Cook,
and denied his request for equal time. The FCC sided with Cook,
as did the Supreme Court.
"There
is no sanctuary in the First Amendment for unlimited private censorship
operating in a medium not open to all."
1969
U.S. Supreme Court, in sustaining the Fairness Doctrine
The Fairness
Doctrine was the means of making sure that the information provided
by a station or network was "Fair and Balanced".
In 1974 the
FCC described the Fairness Doctrine as "…the single
most important requirement of operation in the public interest
- the sine qua non for grant of a renewal of license".
However,
the spirit of good corporate citizenship was systematically reversed
in the 1980's, the beginning of the deregulation craze that still
grips our country. Under FCC chairman Mark Fowler, appointed by
President Ronald Reagan in 1981, the FCC weakened its "public
interest" requirements in several critical ways. First, it
abolished all restrictions on the maximum number of commercials
a station could air and eliminated the minimum requirements for
time that a station had to devote to news and public affairs.
"We
no longer believe that the Fairness Doctrine, as a matter of
policy, serves the public interests… We believe that the
interest of the public in viewpoint diversity is fully served
by the multiplicity of voices in the marketplace today…"
- new FCC viewpoint,
expressed in an official 1985 statement. Only one year later
than Orwell's target year.
The problem with
this optimistic viewpoint is the "multiplicity of voices"
part. Now, in 2005, five corporations dictate 80% of what viewers
consume.
Even with
this new official hostility to the notion that broadcasters were
to return something back to the public, the Fairness Doctrine
itself was still in force in 1985. A 1986 Supreme Court ruling
made it clear that the Fairness Doctrine was an FCC ruling, distinct
from a congressional, statutory, law. This did not weaken the
rule, but made it clear that it power came from the politically
appointed FCC.
Thus, in
1987, to secure the future of the Fairness Doctrine, the United
States Congress passed a bill that codified it into statutory
law. It passed with broad, bipartisan, support. In the House,
it passed with a 3-to-1 ratio and a nearly 2-to-1 ratio in the
Senate. Even right-wing stalwarts Newt Gingrich and Jesse Helms
supported it. But it was vetoed by President Reagan and there
were insufficient votes to override his veto. In August of 1987,
Reagan's FCC did away with the Fairness Doctrine.
In August of 1988, former
FCC commissioner Nicholas Johnson wrote in the California Lawyer
that the fight to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine was:
"a
struggle for nothing less than possession of the First Amendment:
Who gets to have and express opinions in America."
Congress again voted to
make the Fairness Doctrine law, but it was unable to override
the Reagan veto. There was another attempt to bring the Fairness
Doctrine back, in 1991, but it was thwarted by the threatened
vetor of President G.H.W. Bush.
The Museum
of Television has an excellent discussion of the Fairness Doctrine,
for which IBLTV is grateful. In their words:
"The
impact of the elimination of the fairness doctrine was immediate
and significant. In l980 there were 75 talk radio stations in
the country. By 1999 there were more than 1300. The conservative
Weekly Standard recently summed up the landscape, '… 1300
talk stations, nearly all born since the repeal of the fairness
doctrine and nearly all right-leaning…' "
"Today
there are few if any public interest conditions for broadcast
licensees. They can be as one-sided and contemptuous of people
and issues as they desire. So long as they don't use obscenities
they can vilify individuals, candidates and political positions
without ever letting their audience hear from the other side."
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