FCC finally eliminates Fairness Doctrine
Posted on Aug 29, 2011 | by Staff WASHINGTON (BP) -- The Federal Communications Commission has finally removed the Fairness Doctrine from its rules, nearly a quarter of a century after the agency stopped enforcing the controversial policy.
The National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) applauded the long-awaited action.
The Fairness Doctrine was an FCC policy that required television and radio broadcasters to balance opposing views on controversial issues of public significance. The rule had the effect, however, of causing many broadcasters to avoid controversial topics.
The FCC rescinded the policy in 1987, nearly 40 years after it began enforcing it. Rules regarding the Fairness Doctrine remained in federal regulations, however, until the FCC formally announced their elimination.
Congressional liberals had sought in recent years to revive the Fairness Doctrine as conservative talk shows and networks gained leadership in listener and viewer ratings, but they were unsuccessful.
In announcing the action Aug. 22, the FCC said the Fairness Doctrine was one of more than 80 "outdated and obsolete mediarelated rules" that were deleted.
Elimination of the Fairness Doctrine language "will remove an unnecessary distraction," said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, who had made clear his opposition to the policy. "As I have said, striking this from our books ensures there can be no mistake that what has long been a dead letter remains dead. The Fairness Doctrine holds the potential to chill free speech and the free flow of ideas and was properly abandoned over two decades ago."
The NRB, which described it as a "day of genuine celebration," had been warning Congress for eight years that the policy "was not dead because it was still 'on the books,'" said Frank Wright, president of the international association of Christian communicators.
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"We are delighted that [Genachowski] has followed through on his promise to fully eliminate this pernicious rule, which enabled the FCC to compel broadcasters to air opposing viewpoints on controversial issues that the government decided to be of
One of the rules was the so-called Fairness Doctrine, which required the airing of opposing viewpoints. Tom Taylor at www.Radio-Info.com wrote, "The truth is, the Fairness Doctrine was very seldom invoked. When the Reagan-era FCC declared it would quit
Sojourners president Jim Wallis has observed that network-television viewers need to hear the collegial, respectful discussions among marquee leaders with opposing views that take place in network greenrooms moments before they aggressively attack and
The mystery to me is why does he not believe, or care, that there could be a reasonable opposing viewpoint that might be in fact, honorable (an old-fashioned word). Laughably, he accuses them of using fear, intimidation and bribery to get their way.
Media companies today understand that by airing and printing opposing viewpoints — by offering readers, listeners and viewers balance and fairness — they are more likely to capture a larger share of an audience that has literally thousands of choices
Government In The Lab | Blog | Mr. Popularity and Your Enterprise ...
Let’s do an experiment. Take five minutes and do a quick search of your organization’s blogs, microblogs, wikis, and forums that are available behind your firewall – and then let me know what the most popular topics are. Do they involve ”social media,” “Web 2.0,” “new media,” “mobile,” “enterprise 2.0,” or “collaboration?”
Now, take a look at who is posting and commenting on these topics. Are these the same people who also have the most overall comments, posts, edits, and connections? If so, Mr. Popularity may be taking over your community and the worst part of it all? He may actually think he’s helping you.
Starting and maintaining a vibrant online community behind an organizational firewall is already fraught with challenges – integrating it into the workflow , securing funding, scaling across the organization, developing policies and guidelines, creating rewards structures, identifying active champions – and now I’m here to tell you that those very active champions who are so critical to the early growth of your community may also be the cause of its downfall.You see, while these active champions are responsible for seeding a majority of the content, answering questions, posting content, editing pages, and creating topics, they can also skew the content to suit their own agenda and create a chilling effect on opposing viewpoints and topics. This makes your communities far more social media and technology-oriented than your organization really is. In the early days of your online community, this may be of little concern to you – content is being created, new members are joining, and discussions are happening. This creates a vibrant community for those employees interested in social media and technology, but unfortunately, further dissuades those interested in other topics from joining. Mr. Popularity, once an ally, now becomes a challenge to be overcome.
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