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The Fairness Doctrine applied to holders of broadcast licenses only, not to publishers in general. Per Red Lion Broadcasting Co v FCC[1], the FCC's power to enf
by Lazare 5y ago
The Fairness Doctrine applied to holders of broadcast licenses only, not to publishers in general. Per Red Lion Broadcasting Co v FCC[1], the FCC's power to enforce this rule only applied to mediums where there were limited channels.
That is, the court found that since not everyone could have their own broadcast television channel, the FCC could (if it chose) enforce something like the fairness doctrine. Note, however, that such rules are unconstitutional when applied to newspapers[2], or any other medium where bandwidth is not limited.
> Removing it led to Fox and MSNBC today.
Fox and MSNBC are cable channels. The Fairness Doctrine never applied to cable channels, and a modern reincarnation that tried would be obviously unconstitutional.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Lion_Broadcasting_Co._v._FCC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Lion_Broadcasting_Co._v._F...
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Herald_Publishing_Co._v._Tornillo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Herald_Publishing_Co._v....
- hnov 5y agoYou're the best kind of right (technically), that law doesn't even come close to applying here and yet the argument still stands. Broadcasting has been usurped, mass media is not delivered over ATSC, but over a variety of PHYs, with IP/UDP/TCP/TLS/HTTP on top and your channel directory is privatized.
- Lazare 5y agoI agree (and have posted elsewhere in this discussion) that there's a problem that needs solving. Nonetheless, the Fairness Doctrine didn't do what the OP claimed, and couldn't be made to do what the OP wanted, and yes, I think that does fatally undermine the argument being made. (Not to mention which, the current supreme court is much more protective of free speech than in previous decades, and particularly of free speech exercised via corporate forms. Realistically, the odds of an expanded Fairness Doctrine passing muster in this court are nil.) All of which means that whatever the solution ends up being, it's really not going to look much like the old Fairness Doctrine. Which, again, doesn't mean the problem doesn't exist!