Under Obama, The Fairness Doctrine Will Be Called “Localism”
The much-talked-about “fairness doctrine” was a regulation put on television and radio broadcasters requiring them to balance programming about controversial topics such as politics with multiple viewpoints. While that may sound nice in theory, in practice it forces programming Americans actually want to hear off the air in favor of programming the government thinks Americans should hear.
And that has nothing to do with freedom.
But the “fairness doctrine,” thanks to the concerted efforts of people like Rush Limbaugh, has become a radioactive issue that liberals must avoid. But that won’t stop them from attempting to exercise control over broadcast media, and particularly conservative talk radio. Instead of pushing for the fairness doctrine, what the liberals are now pushing for is “localism” where government-appointed boards would decide what sort of content local broadcasters must provide.
From Broadcast & Cable:
...despite President Obama’s statements to this magazine that he is not interested in bringing back the Fairness Doctrine, it continues to concern broadcasters. It has gained new currency of late with FCC proposals to boost localism; these include creating community advisory boards that stations would have to consult with to determine what type of public interest programming they’d need to put on.
Why do we need “community advisory boards” to tell radio and television broadcasters what to broadcast? It seems to me that those broadcasters are already providing content Americans want, else they wouldn’t be in business. The only possible reason to have these boards is to force broadcasters to put on content they wouldn’t normally air.
And that kind of government control over the media has no place in America. It’s just not necessary. The government has no more business telling broadcasters what content to air then they’ve got business telling the grocery stores what products to carry.
