Peter Smyth on Fairness Doctrine

[raccoonradio]

http://greatermedia.com/corner/index.html

Greater Media's Peter Smyth opines on the Fairness Doctrine and mentions that it could be
seen as a chilling effect on free speech, and that there is more than enough media around
to present viewpoints. (Note: This column is up as of Dec 2008; not sure if it will be still
be there months later should you click that URL)

 

[smedge2006]

The one useful analogy he makes is when he compares what he imagines as the threat of some form of FD
with the chill that came over radio from the indecency crackdown. Amazing how many of the people who supported the crackdown that drove Howard Stern off free radio are now screaming about an FD possibly affecting the speech they don't like. (A concern that I think is way overstated given that I actually remember talk radio in the FD era.) You can be for indecency regulation and for FD, or against both, but being against one and not the other smacks of pure self-interest.

As far as harming innocent ears goes, how could a medium that has seemingly lost every listener under age 30 possibly reach, much less affect, the texting-mad under 18s?

 

[FreddyE1977]

excellent point! Especially since the very same people who want to throttle political speech on radio are using Twitter to gin up political activism.