The Fairness Doctrine worked well for decades in that it held stations
to the one of the responsibilities required of them under the terms of
their licenses--to air alternative points of view. It gave alternative
points of view a right to time on the public airwaves, something sorely
lacking today. In fact, it's been an ever increasing spiral down the
tubes since the FD was repealed. What passes for public discourse on
the airwaves today--even with the expanding universe of outlets--is a
travesty. And you and I have no right to respond in kind. The FD kept
agendas from spinning out of control and kept most discourse civil and
centered.

As you must know, Frank, newspapers do not require a license to operate
and the Communications Act does not designate them as a public
resource. The fact is--the FCC violates the spirit and letter of the
Act when it comes to its stewardship of licensed radio and tv stations.
And no one in Congress cares because of copious amounts of NAB money.

In short, it all stinks.

JMHO,
John Figliozzi

On Saturday, October 23, 2004, at 06:15 AM, airwaves-digest wrote:


airwaves-digest Saturday, October 23 2004 Volume 2004 :
Number 246



In this issue:

[Airwaves] Bad news for Short Wave Listening

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sat, 23 Oct 2004 00:14:29 -0400
From: "Frank Dresser"
Subject: [Airwaves] Bad news for Short Wave Listening

"Fuller Wrath" wrote in message
...

:

1. The Fairness Doctrine could be resurrected and rewritten to assure
a
balance of voices/opinions are heard on the public airwaves.

So, why doesn't the government also require newspapers to have a
balance of
voices and opinions?

What are the details of this rewrite? The old fairness doctrine was a
club
for partisians and others with an ax to grind. How would the new
fairness
doctrine keep the political partisans and kooks from harassing media
stations with nusiance complaints? Who would define what a nuisance
complaint is?

Should this new fairness doctrine cover internet radio, satellite
radio,
satellite TV, and cable TV?