There Should Be No Fairness-Doctrine Secret Agenda

[Terri]

By Paul M. Weyrich
June 30, 2008

Off the record the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says that it has no plans to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. Nevertheless, earlier this month in a public letter to FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) charged that the doctrine was going to be re-imposed secretly upon broadcast media.

"Under the rubric of 'broadcast localism' it is clear the Commission is proposing no less than a sweeping takeover by Washington bureaucrats of broadcast media. The proposals and recommendations for Commission action contained in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking amount to the stealth enactment of the Fairness Doctrine, a policy designated to squelch the free speech and free expression of specifically targeted audiences," wrote Boehner.

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