Have you seen today's Boston Globe?...

[Richard Chonak]

Don A wrote:
> 
>>> The Fairness Doctrine does not restrict "freedom of speech".
>>
>> Yes, it does.  When the government mandated "fairness" is being 
>> covered, the station can't otherwise speak.
> 
> There is nothing in the law that restricts content.  People are free to 
> continue doing whatever shows they are doing now.  No one could be 
> restricted from continuing to do shows they do now.
> 
> 
>>> Why people are so against the FD is beyond me.  (Is it that they want 
>>> to be able to broadcast "UN-fairly"?)
>>
>> No, it is simply the idea of government bureaucrats judging program 
>> content is downright scary.
> 
> Where does it say that "Govt Beauracrats" would  be "judging program 
> content"?
> 

Well, what happened in the good old days?   Did no one ever complain 
that a station was violating the "Fairness Doctrine"?  If there were 
such complaints, how were they adjudicated, by whom, and according to 
what standards?   What was the potential penalty for non-compliance?

As long as the costs and risks of bring judged out of compliance are 
non-trivial, people have a reasonable basis for being concerned about 
the resulting "chilling effect".

--RC