The topic du jour on the “talking heads” programs today seems to be the “canceling” of Jimmy Kimmel. There’s also an enormous amount of conflation of freedom of speech with a right to a platform for one’s speech.
Has President Trump unwittingly managed to create a consensus for a restoration of the “Fairness Doctrine”? I.e “equal time”? It certainly sounds like that to me.
If I’m not mistaken the “Fairness Doctrine” was repealed in 1987. I thought its repeal was a bad idea—another example of how rarely I get what I want in terms of public policy.
I think that it is unlikely reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine would be upheld by the SCOTUS these days. The doctrine was upheld in the 60s and 70s primarily based on the broadcast spectrum being limited, justifying regulation of First Amendment content of a scarce resource. About the time Reagan’s FCC repealed the Fairness Doctrine, my parent’s household had four channels: ABC, CBS, NBC & PBS. The limited First Amendment rights for broadcasters didn’t apply to cable or the internet. Perhaps someone could put together a new legal justification that is not as anachronistic in it’s assumptions.
The fairness doctrine was always contrary to the 1st Amendment. Today, it’s irrelevant. One could argue it had a role to play back when the FCC-regulated commons serviced all TV and radio, but today, most media is carried by wires. Bringing back the fairness doctrine would just kill off what’s left of traditional broadcast.