Good riddance to bad rubbish, as they use to say:
The FCC gave the coup de grace to the fairness doctrine Monday as the commission axed more than 80 media industry rules.
Earlier this summer FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski agreed to erase the post WWII-era rule, but the action Monday puts the last nail into the coffin for the regulation that sought to ensure discussion over the airwaves of controversial issues did not exclude any particular point of view. A broadcaster that violated the rule risked losing its license.
While the commission voted in 1987 to do away with the rule — a legacy to a time when broadcasting was a much more dominant voice than it is today — the language implementing it was never removed. The move Monday, once published in the federal register, effectively erases the rule.
I'm happy but only guardedly. It's easy to say that the rule has been "effectively erased," but the fact is it was put in place by executive fiat rather than congressinal action, and it could be instituted again just as easily. Still, it's nice to see a bunch of rules killed for a change, and the FCC is as good a place to start as any.
The fairness doctrine was never defensible in the first place, being the kind of interference the founders would have considered impermissible under the First Amendment had electronic media bee available then. Today, with the proliferation of choices we have through cable TV, Internet connections, satellite radio and who knows what else to come, it makes no sense at all.
It's always bothered me that so many print journalists over the years have chosen to gloat about the rules faced by electronic journalists instead of sticking up for their First Amendment rights. Self-interest is a powerful thing.
