Fairness Doctrine Panic among religious broadcasters

National Religious Broadcast Convention attendees showed symptoms of what Matthew Lasar called Fairness Doctrine Panic (FDP) during their Feb. 7-10 convention in Nashville.

Intravenous facts weren't strong enough medicine to prevent the emergence of FDP symptoms.

The broadcasters sponsored a debate between Whitewater investigator Ken Starr, dean of Pepperdine University School of Law, and Nadine Strossen, former president of the American Civil Liberties Union. It concluded that the Fairness Doctrine wasn't coming back.

Last June, then Sen. Barack Obama made clear his opposition to fairness doctrine renewal, and has not budged since.

Acting Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michae Copps recently said that the Fairness Doctrine is an old fight that “didn’t need to be rehashed.”

Even former President Jimmy Carter has spoken against revival of that era-of-limited-outlets artifact. It was a Federal Communications Commission policy requiring broadcasters to air controversial issues of public importance and in a manner that was judged to be honest, equitable, and balanced. One that Carter said properly went away as a part of industry deregulation for which his administration labored.

Some Democratic legislators were provoked last week to make a little noise about it, but there is no legislation in prospect and apparent supporters have since been backing away.

Still, the disease is nurtured by poorly researched news stories from sources which are typically sympathetic to religious broadcasters.

So who can blame the broadcasters for being fearful of potential Obama meddling. But there is nonetheless every reason to believe they're being misled into wasting their time.

And that's no way to treat the broadcasters. They have real survival concerns which require their attention.

Addendum

GetReligion reminds us that the Fairness Doctrine is often confused with the Equal Time Rule. The latter "requires stations that give free air time to one candidate to provide the same service to their opponent."