Senate bars FCC from revisiting Fairness Doctrine

[BuyingThyme]

Senate bars FCC from revisiting Fairness Doctrine

Associated Press - February 26, 2009 3:13 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate has barred federal regulators from reviving a policy, abandoned two decades ago, that required balanced coverage of issues on public airwaves.

...

President Barack Obama says he has no intention of reimposing the doctrine, but Republicans, led by Sen. Jim DeMint, RS.C., say they still need a guarantee the government would not establish new quotas or guidelines on programming.


http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=9912328

[Taverner]

1. Aw Fuck!

[mmonk]

2. Nothing scares a liar like the truth.

[blueclown]

3. WTF?

This article is lacking in details.

How could a Democratic Congress push something like this forward? What was the roll call?

[ck4829]

4. Won't be enough for the righties

[BOSSHOG]

5. "would not establish guidelines on programming"

demint is just fine and dandy with the right wing lie machine cranked up loud and clear 24/7 on the public airwaves.

The fairness doctrine has nothing to do with the first amendment.

[monmouth]

6. Why is POTUS so against this????? I really don't understand it...n/t

[Donnachaidh]

7. WTF is the logic behind this?

Pelosi made some comments last night about how the pukes were destroying themselves with their own rhetoric being aired all over the place. She might have a point with this temporarily.

HOWEVER, the other side does NOT get fair amounts of airtime, and the Fairness Doctrine would at LEAST level the playing fiend.

Personally, I think the Dems don't want the playing field leveled enough for the real progressives to get their voices heard - and I think THAT is behind Obama's refusal to do this.

Bottom Line -- It's still ALL about controlling the message - on BOTH sides.

[BuyingThyme]

9. Actually, from what little I glean from this AP blurb,

the Senate has taken the power away from Obama, not the other way around.

[Donnachaidh]

13. How did the Democratic Members let this shit slip through?

Seriously, where the *f* was Harry Reid?

[BuyingThyme]

18. I suspect this is reflective of the kind of thing Senator Byrd was talking about yesterday.

The Congress wants to take the power back from the bureaucracies.

Just a guess, mind you.

[leftstreet]

8. wait, what?

So the Senate is now responding to Rightwing Radio hosts?

(snip)

The Senate vote on the so-called Fairness Doctrine was in part a response to conservative radio talk show hosts who feared that Democrats would try to revive the policy to ensure liberal opinions got equal time.

[mike_c]

10. the senate is just as worried about liberal opinions as RW radio hosts....

eom

[leftstreet]

14. no kidding

It's bizarro world

[silverweb]

11. I don't mind so much...

...as long as stiff penalties are applied and enforced for lies and slander, and shamelessly repeating lies and slander, and not giving equally prominent exposure to retractions/corrections of lies and slanders.

[LaPera]

12. Republicans control the media, they don't want anything to change that, just think what fucking

shape the corporations & republican would be in if there was fairness in station ownership and on our PUBLIC airwaves....as it is now republicans have over 90% of talk radio and the five major television news networks are all republican owned just think if the public airwaves were equal - 50%

The republicans would not doubt be close to total destruction (instead of just being down)...as it is now thy can pound in the lies, 24/7 coast to coast, border to border, again, on over 90% of our public airwaves.

[MarjorieG]

15. Spending too much time defining and enforcing right, left, and center.

When we want the terms to change. The emergence of talk radio and corp media's hard line emerged at the same time as fairness lapsed, but I don't think trying to curb those opinions would help our cause. We need better alternative media and minority ownership. A PBS not in the tank for corporations, etc.

I've been for reinstatement for years, but now not so sure.

[depakid]

16. Harry Reid champion of the Republicans again!

Regardless of the cowardly Senate's whinging- the FCC can proceed however it likes with evidence based rulemaking- and there's nothing the Republicans and their enablers can do about it.

Without Obama's signature- it would take a veto proof majority or a court decision (which is unlikely based on the precedent) to over turn an agency rule that's followed the APA.

That's how the far right took over American radio and TV and turned it into a culture of unaccountable lies -and a propaganda organ of the Republican party the 1st place.

[fascisthunter]

17. Duh... let the Market Take Care of Everything... Duh

[KharmaTrain]

19. Yawn...

A non-story. President Obama nor has any other politician advocated a return to the "Fairness Doctrine". This is a right wing boogie man and an attempt to force legislation to keep stations that air hate radio from ever dropping the format even if the station is bleeding money or sold. This is a lot of nothing.