No, the president did not. The FCC overturned the regulation. What President Reagan did was to veto a congressional attempt to make the regulation a law. The Supreme Court set the stage for the FCC to dump the regulation in 1984 (FCC v. League of Women Voters, 468 U.S. 364). The regulation came up again in 1993 and failed. Neither Congress nor the Clinton administration supported it.
There is a difference between a regulation and a law. Section 315 of the Communications Act of 1937 was federal law passed by Congress. It required broadcast stations to offer "equal opportunity" to all legally qualified political candidates for any office if they had allowed any person running in that office to use the station. The Fairness Doctrine was simply FCC policy, a regulation the FCC dumped as unconstitutional in 1987. After Meredith Corp. v. FCC, the Supreme Court declared that the Doctrine was not mandated by Congress and the FCC did not have to continue to enforce it.
For the record, as an independent regulatory agency, the FCC has the power to reimpose the Fairness Doctrine at any time without action by either the executive or legislative branches. It should not be confused, but often is, with the Equal Time rule. The Fairness Doctrine deals with matters of public importance, not political opinion. The Equal Time rule only deals with political candidates.
Nonetheless a fake debate about the Fairness Doctrine continues. “In 1980 there were fewer than 100 radio talk shows nationwide. Today there are more than 1,400 stations entirely devoted to talk formats. Liberals, not satisfied with their domination of academia, Hollywood and most of the mainstream media, want to kill talk radio, where liberals have been unable to dent conservatives' dominance,” George Will wrote in the Washington Post.
Will’s colleague Michael Gerson wrote that “three hours of Rush Limbaugh on a radio station would have to be balanced by three hours of his liberal equivalent. This may sound fair and balanced. But it would destroy the profitability of conservative talk radio and lead other outlets to avoid political issues entirely — actually reducing the public discussion of controversial issues.” They also both wrote that in 1987 President Reagan “eliminated” (Will) or “overturned” (Gerson) the 1949 FCC regulation.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Dave Nalle
If it's a fake debate, why was a bill to make the Fairness Doctrine law almost passed last time the Democrats controlled congress back in 1989?
If it's a fake debate, why won't they allow the Pence Amendment to even come to the floor of the house for debate?
If it's a fake debate, perhaps you could explain Rep. Maurice Hinchey's Media Ownership Reform Act which includes a reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine.
If it's a fake debate, perhaps you could enlighten us about why we shouldn't worry about the incoming Attorney General's history of wanting to restrict free speech on the internet?
Dave
2 - Tommy Mack
Those are interesting questions, Dave. In general the debate is “fake” because making the Fairness Doctrine a law is not going to happen. The FCC can reimpose it without congress or the White House or the Justice Department.
"Almost" means it did not pass congress in 1989 or in 1993. There is dwindling support for such legislation, nor would the President be likely to sign it into law.
The Pence Amendment lacked sufficient signatures to make it to the House floor.
Maurice Hinchey's Media Ownership Reform Act seeks to restore the regulation to an existing act of congress. Even so, as I wrote, the doctrine applies only to matters of public importance, not to political opinion.
As to worrying about “the incoming Attorney General's history of wanting to restrict free speech on the internet,” the Justice Department has no influence over the FCC.
The bottom line is that the FCC dropped the doctrine recognizing it as unconstitutional.
I hope this helps.
Tommy
3 - Brunelleschi
Why is it that the more educated one becomes, the more they are accused of being the hated "liberal intelligentsia," - and the less educated they are, the more they like right-wing hate-talk radio?
It's pretty clear that the dumber you are, the more likely you are going to be conservative.
:)
How does that work anyway?
4 - Roger Nowosielski
Bruno,
What makes me wonder, where do these people come from? They should all die out by now, and a new generation springing in their place. Is it that we've been undergoing the dumbing of America?
5 - Clavos
How does that work anyway?
Duh, dunno...Wut wuz da kweschun???
(I guess this proves I am dumb -- dumb enough to respond to, and thus encourage, a troll.)
6 - Brunelleschi
Either there is a scarcity of education, or an unequal distribution of brains.
Oh well, someone has to take out the trash and vote GOP.
:)
7 - Clavos
Oh well, someone has to take out the trash and vote GOP.
Except that those who take out the trash belong to the SEIU and invariably vote Democrat (if they vote -- if not, their union does it for them, with dollars donated to Democrat candidates)...
8 - Dan(Miller)
someone has to take out the trash and vote GOP. I think he's got it! Alas, the superabundance of trash and the scarcity of voters willing to remove it make this very difficult.
Dan(Miller)
9 - Hope and Change?
Here is proof that Democrat suffer from a mental disorder and lower IQ's that Conservatives....
Did they really say these things....
” I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”
" Bill Clinton, 1998
“I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go?”
"Barack Obama on the campaign trail 2008
“You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”
"John Kerry, fumbling his next run for the Dem nomination in 2006
“I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it ”
"John Kerry on his vote to “support” the troops in 2004
“My staff tells me not to say this, but I’m going to say it anyway, in the summer because of the heat and high humidity, you could literally smell the tourists coming into the Capitol. It may be descriptive but it’s true.”
" Harry Reid, Senate Democrat Majority Leader, 2008
“I remember landing under sniper fire”
" Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail 2008
“Hiiiiaaaauuuugh”
" Howard Dean rousing the faithful in 2004
And… Anything ever said by Joe Biden
"Joe Biden, any time, any place
Hope and change =affirmative action gone wild!
10 - Brunelleschi
The smarter ones organize and make more money, while the dumber ones get jealous because they are not smart enough to. Instead they bury their misery listening to hate radio.
Who did Joe the Fake Plumber campaign with, and was he a genius?
11 - Dave Nalle
What makes me wonder, where do these people come from? They should all die out by now, and a new generation springing in their place. Is it that we've been undergoing the dumbing of America?
The problem is that the left has deliberately dumbed down education in our schools so that they could keep the dependent class dependent on them because they are too fat, lazy and uninformed to get better jobs or question what their leaders tell them.
The regrettable side effect is that occasionally people who come out of that system discover that they've been cheated and lied to all their lives and without ever having been equipped with basic reasoning skills they react against the leftist establishment and veer to the right politically.
And that's how you get Ron Paul supporters.
Dave
12 - zingzing
"The problem is that the left has deliberately dumbed down education in our schools so that they could keep the dependent class dependent on them..."
ok, dave. you're as bad as pablo, you know.
13 - Roger Nowosielski
Bruno:
"Who did Joe the Fake Plumber campaign with, and was he a genius?"
You may be wrong here. I've heard him interviewed by BBC (he's on a worldwide tour), and he's quite articulate, sensible, and coherent - the kind of vocabulary and fluency you wouldn't expect from the average Joe Six-Pack. It almost blew my mind!
Which makes me think. I certainly don't want to be adding any fuel to the conspiracy theorists (not that they need push and shove), but it really
occurred to me that he may have been a plant.
14 - Brunelleschi
#11-
Change a few words around, and you are describing what churches do to people.
:)
15 - Roger Nowosielski
"The problem is that the left has deliberately dumbed down education in our schools so that they could keep the dependent class dependent on them because they are too fat, lazy and uninformed to get better jobs or question what their leaders tell them."
Dave, that's a tall statement. I might agree on the detrimental effects of public education up to K-12 grade, but I don't think you want to say that of liberal arts colleges and universities. The Left (to be distinguished now from the Democrats or any party) has no interest in doing what you propose. And it is from the Left that most of the faculty is drawn. They espouse a different perspective than you would like them to, but that doesn't substantiate your high claim.
16 - Roger Nowosielski
zing,
Are you and Pablo in a feud?
17 - zingzing
no, roger, but pablo is a paranoid conspiracy theorist. much like dave, apparently.
18 - Roger Nowosielski
If that's Pablo's only fault, I am quite ready to live with it. I'd say that his intellect, erudition and facility with language more than make up for this one possible defect. Don't you?
19 - zingzing
i dunno. he's on the correct side of my political dial, but he kinda makes a mockery of it now and again. he's got his plusses and his minuses, that's for sure.
20 - Arch Conservative
It's pretty clear that the dumber you are, the more likely you are going to be conservative.
Yes all one has to do to witness with their own eyes the intellectual superiority of liberals is watch how they behave when a guest speaker who does not share their political views comes to a University to speak.
Nothing says we're smarter than you than forming a loud, screaming, unruly mob chanting meaningless catchphrases, rushing the stage like insolent five years olds and yes....even throwing pies in someone's face.
21 - Roger Nowosielski
But Arch! That has to do with manners and with intolerance. Surely both sides are equally guilty on the latter count.
22 - Arch Conservative
Roger I'll give you one hundred dollars for every example you can cite where conservative students or faculty have tried to silence those on campus who disagree with them or otherwise behaved like obnoxious toddlers while those in opposition were attempting to express themselves if you will give me one dollar for every example I cant cite where liberals have done this.
When's it all said and done you will have mortgaged your home to go tit for tat with me.
23 - Roger Nowosielski
You may be right, Arch. The reason may be why the liberals are so much more rabid is their conviction that the Right is so dead-wrong. No excuse!
24 - Tommy Mack
You are correct, Arch.
It is indeed tough for obnoxious toddlers to express a logical argument based on the Aristotelian concept of good reasons [logos " logical appeal based on “good reasons”], especially while wearing Underoos and teething.
Tommy
25 - Clavos
[Pablo's] facility with language...
Heh. Good one, Roger.