The fairness doctrine was anything but.

• Author: Hentoff, Nat
• Position: Mass Media

THE TERM "Fairness Doctrine" exemplifies what author George Orwell called "newspeak." It uses language to mask the deleterious effects of its purported meaning. The Fairness Doctrine itself was in effect from 1949-87. It required that radio broadcasts devote a reasonable amount of time to the discussion of controversial issues of public importance, and that the broadcaster do that fairly by offering reasonable opportunity for opposing viewpoints to be heard. If the Federal Communications Commission found a radio station in repeated violation of this Doctrine, it could take away the station's license--a business form of capital punishment.

One famous victim of the Fairness Doctrine was WXUR, controlled by Rev. Carl McIntire--a fiery right-wing fundamentalist preacher--which refused to abide by the Doctrine and lost its license in 1972. The case that upheld this action by the FCC was Brandywine-Main Line Radio, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission. A dissenting judge on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, David Bazelon, sided with the extinguished radio station: "In subjecting WXUR ... to the supreme penalty, the [FCC] has also dealt a death blow to the licensee's freedom of speech and press. Furthermore, it has denied the listening public access to the expression of many controversial views ... however unpopular and divisive we might judge those ideas to be.... Yet, the Commission would have us approve this action--in the name of the Fairness Doctrine!"

Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas opposed the Fairness Doctrine on the same grounds: "I fail to see," he wrote in 1973 in Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. v. Democratic National Committee, "how constitutionally we can treat TV and radio differently than we treat newspapers." Douglas was right. "The Fairness Doctrine has no place in our First Amendment regime," he continued. "It puts the head of the camel inside the tent and enables Administration after Administration to toy with TV or radio in order to serve its sordid or its benevolent ends."

However, in a unanimous 1969 decision in Red Lion Broadcasting Company v. FCC (in which Douglas did not participate, having missed oral arguments), the Supreme Court already strongly had validated the Fairness Doctrine. Broadcasters are licensed by the government, the Court argued. The spectrum of public frequencies is a public resource, and since there is a scarcity of available channels--unlike newspapers and print publications...