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

[A. Joseph Ross]

On 12 Nov 2008 at 0:44, Richard Chonak wrote:

> Believe it or not, Don, there are people in America who don't even
> have confidence in judges.  Can you imagine that, even here in our
> enlightened commonwealth?

It's the nature of the work that in almost every case, someone goes 
away dissatisfied.
 
> They don't want to rely on judges, even if the judges were elected, to
> decide cases of "fair speech" justly.

In Massachusetts, and in the Federal system, judges are not elected.  
In any event a Fairness Doctrine complaint would be heard in the 
first instance before the FCC.
 
> If a respondent were to win a case, the expense of litigation would be
> a punishment, and if the complainants are funded by George Soros or
> Richard Mellon Scaife or (insert your own rich bogeyman here), they'll
> be happy to start over with a new complaint after they lose the last
> one.   Fairness Doctrine complaints could become the equivalent of
> SLAPP suits.

Well, we have an anti-SLAPP statute in Massachusetts that cuts that 
short.  The defendant is entitled to file a Special Motion to 
Dismiss, which stops all proceedings until it is heard.  I won't go 
into the details of the procedure and the standards in the statute, 
but if the defendant wins the Special Motion to Dismiss, s/he can 
recover all attorneys fees, not just for the motion, but for all 
services connected with the lawsuit.  I did one successfully last 
year.

I'm sure that if it becomes a problem, a similar law can be made 
regarding Fairness Doctrine complaints.
 
-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                           617.367.0468
 92 State Street, Suite 700                   Fax 617.507.7856
Boston, MA 02109-2004           	         http://www.attorneyross.com