Stupid CNN Poll

[hippywife]

This morning, on the front page of cnn.com, they are asking if people think the plan by Sinclair Broadcasting to run their anti-Kerry film is a violation of equal time laws. What equal time laws?? I sent them an email:

Your poll today asks if people feel the plan to air an anti-Kerry film by Sinclair Broadcasting is against the equal time laws. There are no equal time laws and there never have been. The concept of equal time was a doctrine of the FCC. It was dropped during the Reagan administration. When congress tried to codify the doctrine into law, it was rejected by both Reagan and then Bush during their respective terms in office. Do you really not know this or are you trying to play on peoples' ignorance of the law? There should be a law allowing candidates equal time to address the public instead of further enriching broadcasting companies by being required to buy air time on the people's property. It would be the civic thing to do but the greed in the industry, which is now owned by a select few mega-corporations, makes it near impossible for good and talented people to become a part of the process of serving their country unless they are also wealthy. It's a shame really. It's also a shame that your question this morning makes a mockery of it.

[No Mandate Here.]

1. Even though CNN's Constitutional scholarship is lacking,

by a large margin, the poll is going the right way- that SINclair is violating the fairness doctrine.

[theshadow]

2. Was the end of the doctrine...

... the catalyst for the rise of talk radio?

[tkmorris]

4. No

Talk radio existed and flourished prior to the decline of the Fairness Doctrine. However, it's passing, in addition to the easing laws on media ownership, did allow stations to broadcast talk radio that reflected the point of view of the owners without having to concern themselves about whether the opposing view was heard.

I remember well, as I had a mindless job driving around the Washington DC area at the time. I would often listen to WBAL out of Baltimore in the afternoons and they would run a right-winger program, followed by a left-wing one. I seem to recall that Jim Bohannon hosted the latter, though I can't recall the shrill twit that preceded him. It always irritated me that the liberal show, which was due to end at 4, was interrupted at 3:50 for "The Rest of the Story" from Paul Harvey. Mr. Harvey is an uber-christian right-wing idiot. Bohannon would have to break for this nonsense and then when it was done he'd have about 30 seconds left to close the show. It seemed kind of underhanded to me.

Of course, if I'd only known what the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine would cause, I'd have realized I was hearing the last of the Good Ole Days. Sigh.

[onenote]

3. clarification of rules

Actually, the rules that are commonly referred to as the "equal time" rules (although they actually are the "equal opportunities" rules) are statutory and still in effect. Those rules require a station to provide a candidate with comparable time at a comparable rate in response to an "appearance" by another candidate. Sinclair obviously knows (and is taking advantage of the fact) that if Bushie doesn't appear in the swifties shitty little film, then it doesn't trigger this rule. The rule that was repealed (and that Reagan and Bush I the vetoed when Congress tried to re-instate) was the "fairness doctrine." That rule required stations to make available time for the coverage of issues of public importance. Even under that rule probably wouldn't have blocked Sinclair from airing the swifties pos. However, it would've provided a basis for complaining to the FCC about Sinclair's one sided approach to covering the election.

onenote

[hippywife]

5. There is no rule at all

http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/F/htmlF/fairnessdoct/fairnessdoct.htm

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Fairness_Doctrine

When was the last time you actually saw a TV news broadcast air an "editorial" like they used to?

On edit: Since they are calling this a news program, they should then be required to also air films like F 9/11.

[onenote]

6. exactly what I said

Fairness doctrine: repealed
"Equal time": still on the books, but not relevant to the sinclair issue.
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/E/htmlE/equaltimeru/equaltimeru.htm


onenote

edited to add link