Obama opposes fairness doctrine – in public

I have been critical of Democrats in recent posts about what’s called the ‘Fairness Doctrine.’  I call it the ‘Censorship Doctrine.’  This week we heard this from Fox News.

“President Obama opposes any move to bring back the so-called fairness doctrine,” FOXNews.com reports. It adds that:

“The statement is the first definitive stance the administration has taken since an aide told an industry publication last summer that Obama opposes the doctrine — a long-abolished policy that would require broadcasters to provide opposing viewpoints on controversial issues.

“As the president stated during the campaign, he does not believe the fairness doctrine should be reinstated,” White House spokesman Ben LaBolt told FOXNews.com.

However, what’s not said in the release is that many of the House and Senate Deomoctrats FAVOR the measure. According to insiders, it’s believe the Democrats may make it a part of budget legistlation that President Obama WILL sign, because he won’t want to close down the government.

Chad Bresson at CDR Radio reports, “The problem, as it was described to us in Nashville, is that when Copps says, “put public interest considerations and guidelines back into licensing for full power stations”, he means granting local boards licensing power. The license will be at the mercy of a local board… which is fine if the community has no problem with religious programming (as some would say); however, if the community wants politically correct radio, the Christian broadcaster would be toast.

In other words, the NRB sees the localism standard as a means of bringing the fairness doctrine in the back door. The NRB believes it has successfully stigmatized the fairness doctrine… if it becomes reality again, the NRB believes it will be by another name in another form. And they’ve identified the localism boards as one of those forms.”

So, while the Obama administration isn’t seeking to reinstate the Censorship Doctrine, many others may be trying to.