U Not Gonna Like This

This from the Accuracy In Media [AIM] web site on the "Fairness and Accountability in Broadcasting Act," bill, by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D):

Targeting Conservatives

Nationally, of course, the liberals were already in charge. The Big Three broadcast networks took their cue from the New York Times, which was read by the writers, reporters, anchors, and the higher-ups. The big three held "story meetings" early in the day to decide what would be on the evening news and what will be left out.

Conservatives had a national media voice only through radio and because of this they were targeted. John T. Flynn in While You Slept (1951) reported that the radicals of that day boasted they would force national conservative commentators such as Boake Carter, Upton Close, Henry J. Taylor, and Fulton Lewis, Jr. off the air.

Carter solved their problem by dying. Henry J. Taylor and Upton Close disappeared, though Taylor reappeared briefly later on. Fulton Lewis survived only by inventing a format that encouraged local sponsorship. Robert F. Hurleigh moved from CBS-owned WBBM in Chicago to the Mutual network, where he adopted Lewis's format.
It is interesting to note that Senator Jesse Helms, who would later wage a campaign to "become Dan Rather's boss" by encouraging conservatives to buy stock in CBS, started out as a local radio commentator in North Carolina.

Chilling Effect

But the FCC's "Fairness Doctrine" had a chilling effect on these local broadcasters. If they wanted to take a conservative editorial position on a hot topic, they were discouraged.

Government-enforced "fairness" decreed that air time devoted to one point of view had to be matched by "equal time" for the opposing position.

It sounded reasonable. Any programmer could theoretically put a conservative on the air for three hours. But the station would then be pressured to put on a liberal talk-show host for another three hours, even if that liberal host could not attract advertisers. If the station manager couldn't afford to run three hours commercial-free, he was told, in effect, "Too bad. Put a liberal on the air or you're in violation of the Fairness Doctrine." As a practical matter, station managers usually decided that conservative commentary wasn't worth the hassle.

The Kennedy Administration pursued this approach. Kennedy Assistant Commerce Secretary Bill Ruder was quoted as saying, "Our massive strategy was to use the Fairness Doctrine to challenge right-wing broadcasters and hope that the challenges would be so costly to them that they would be inhibited and decide it was too expensive to continue." That strategy was recommended by longtime United Auto Workers president Walter Reuther.

Liberal Talk Radio?

The Fairness Doctrine effectively met its demise at the hands of President Ronald Reagan. Once again, the Gipper—derided by one establishment liberal as "an amiable dunce"—knew how to let the left-wingers keep underestimating him as he handed their heads to them.

A federal court had ruled in 1986 that the Fairness Doctrine lacked the force of law. So Congress passed a law giving the doctrine some teeth. President Reagan vetoed the law, anticipating that getting the government out of the media business would open up more alternatives. Congress did not override the veto, the FCC junked the policy altogether, and a media revolution was underway.

Since then, Americans starved for a multiplicity of voices have found refuge in federally licensed over-the-air broadcasts, and also through new outlets with content legally beyond the reach of the FCC—i.e., cable TV, cable radio (which regularly broadcasts George Putnam), satellite radio, and the Internet. Slowly—but steadily—the old-line media are losing their clout with the public, with fewer listeners, viewers and subscribers. Nonetheless, they remain dominant. The leftists are not satisfied with that. They want total control, apparently believing that given free and open discussion, their view will not resonate with the public.

Liberals, like conservatives, are free to promote their views. The reason, however, that liberal talk shows such as those on Air America cannot attract a significant number of listeners or advertisers is that the public has had its fill of the liberal line handed down on high from NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, National Public Radio (NPR), PBS television, the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Time, Newsweek, and the formerly conservative U.S. News and World Report.

Liberals know that there are far more conservatives than liberals in American society, and that the conservative viewpoint is increasingly popular, as reflected in the rise of talk radio and Fox News. That is why liberals in and out of Congress are working to stifle conservative commentary on the air—not only by bringing back the Fairness Doctrine, but also by using the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law to regulate and silence the media for "contributing" to one campaign or another.

Slaughtering Conservatives

Rep. Louise Slaughter's "Fairness and Accountability in Broadcasting" bill would bring back the Fairness Doctrine for over-the-air radio and television. But she has talked about applying its provisions to cable-TV as well.

She has bluntly stated—in an interview with commentator Bill Moyers—that the right of individuals simply to turn off a program they don't like "is not good enough" and that politicians have to enforce "the responsibility" of broadcasters "to use our airwaves judiciously and responsibly and call them to account if they don't." That euphemistic language spells government censorship, regardless of how Rep. Slaughter tries to dress it up with high-sounding ideals.

Slaughter's fellow New Yorker, Maurice Hinchey, a member of the House Appropriations Committee that decides such issues as how much money to give the FCC, has sponsored another pro-Fairness Doctrine bill that he calls the "Media Ownership Reform Act of 2005." He has hosted a Capitol Hill showing of the leftist film, "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism," which insists that Fox News is too conservative.