Is it the Fairness Doctrine...or the Unfair Doctrine?

Let’s play a little game.

• You are the owner of a small news/talk radio station in a community of less than 500,000.
• Your radio station broadcasts at 1,000 watts of power; by comparison a station in Cincinnati or St. Antonio broadcasts at 50,000 watts.
• As the owner of the radio station you choose a ‘conservative’ format as opposed to a ‘progressive’ format.
Rules:
1. You will be given a license to operate for a period of three years.
2. During the time you operate you will have to prove that your station is “operating on behalf of the public interest.”
3. If you can not prove that your radio station is operating on “behalf of the public interest” you will be charged a fee. Said fee will be paid directly to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
4. When your three year license is nearing the expiration date you will have to announce when the license is going to expire and explain to the public how they can participate in the process of determining whether or not your license should be renewed.
5. The FCC would have a website that would facilitate interaction with the public about the station’s conduct and content.

Using the example above you would be a small business owner who due to the “Fairness Doctrine” would not necessarily be able to choose the format for your radio station that attracts the most advertisers. Instead you would be forced to operate a radio station that serves the “public interest” or pay a fee to a Corporation that would operate a news/talk radio station that support local news, public affairs programming, and cover controversial political issues in a fair and balanced manner.

Knowing the rules stated above would you invest your time and money in a news/talk radio station?

The “rules” I stated above come directly from a “Talk Radio Study” researched and published by the Center for American Progress. Gene Sperling, Senior fellow at the Center for American Progress (CAP), currently serves on Obama’s economic transition advisory committee which met last week. CAP mission is: Progressive Ideas for a Strong, Free, and Just America. I am for a strong and free America…but who said life is “just?” Oh, I know the same people who think that spreading the money earned by some to those who don’t pay any income taxes is the “fair and patriotic” thing to do. I believe that CAP’s report is part of the ammunition being used by liberal democrats to bring back the Fairness Doctrine.

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/0/talk_radio.html

Several leading members of the liberal democratic congress and President-Elect Obama have stressed that they want to bring back the Fairness Doctrine. Basically the Fairness Doctrine was a policy that required radio and TV stations to provide equal time to issues of public interest or face the possibility of losing their license to broadcast. During the Reagan administration the FCC repealed the Fairness Doctrine under some concerns about its constitutionality (Free Speech). Within months after its repeal Rush Limbaugh’s radio show became nationally syndicated and the rest is history in terms of conservative talk radio shows peppering the AM radio waves.

Conservative talk radio shows have been profitable for radio stations owners (and the hosts…Rush Limbaugh makes a lot of money) but “progressive” (aka liberal) radio talk show programs have been not so successful. Ok, that’s supply and demand, free market, capitalism. But those basics of (what used to be) the American economy do not make liberals happy…it is not fair or just…according to them. They want to require a radio station that airs Rush to air liberal shows with equal amount of time and show time (can’t play liberals at 11 pm if Rush airs at 1 pm).

So the radio station owner would have to air liberal shows even if advertisers don’t want to advertise due to fewer people listening to the liberal shows. This means that the radio station owner would have to charge companies that advertises on conservative shows more to make up for the revenue lost on liberal shows just so they can afford to run the liberal shows. (Under the CAP plan the station owner would not have to air the liberal shows but they would have to pay a fee…either way it costs the station owner money.)

Call me idealistic but if people wanted to listen to progressive talk radio stations they would be more successful and on the air in more cities.

The Media Research Center is actively involved in fighting the FCC bringing back the Fairness Doctrine. Go to their website, read their info, and sign their petition if you agree that the Fairness Doctrine is, well, unfair.
http://www.mrcaction.org/517/petition.asp?PID=18636028
Their home page is www.mrc.org