Thursday, December 12, 2013

House To FCC: "Fairness" Is Unfair

     The FCC has been making noise about getting back into being "News Police," making sure for every bit of airtime someone is hectoring you about one side of any issue, someone else gets to nag you about the other side of it.

     Besides being idiotic -- you can (and probably will) just turn the knob -- it's a highly-subjective mess and would force stations to replace popular programming with unpopular programming.

     Some members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee think so, too, and have asked the FCC to remember there is, still, a First Amendment.

     Will the Commission listen?  Time will tell.

5 comments:

Bear said...

"asked the FCC to remember there is, still, a First Amendment"

And it's very, very precious. So precious it must be carefully rationed and licensed.

Anonymous said...

They'll probably say Congress doesn't have First Amendment rights...

gfa

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

Could be worse, I suppose. They could apply the Fairness Doctrine to 2m :)

(That might actually brighten up the band, though. Jeez, I swear the "regulars" on 146.700 sound like they all have SADS year round. Never heard such a bunch of down in the mouth grumps.)

Archer said...

"asked the FCC to remember there is, still, a First Amendment"

FCC response: "For now. Give us a few more years."

Windy Wilson said...

A news agency with a little courage could make the FCC and the fairness doctrine a laughing stock by applying it liberally and "fairly". In every scientific discussion, bring in the Flat Earth Society and every other crackpot, no matter how fringe; for every Global Warming piece, a bit from the doubters, for every evolutionary proponent, one for Intelligent Design, Creationism, and the one where the world rests on four turtles. (Lenni Lenape, I think). We have the President from Alinsky, we have to accept the new rules, and ridicule works both sides of the aisle.