Welcome to the Tech Policy Podcast. I'm Evan Schwarzenberg. On today's show, fake news and the fairness

doctrine. The election of Donald Trump has got a lot of people in a tizzy, especially those who've

seen fake news proliferate on Facebook,

many arguing that fake news helps swing the election to Donald Trump. But let's start with the

fairness doctrine, because the president-elect has started a new debate about an old policy in a

tweet that he sent. Quote, I watched parts of Saturday Night Live last night. It is a totally one-sided, biased show.

Nothing funny at all, he wrote. And then he added, quote, equal time for us, question mark.

What is the president-elect talking about? Well, of course, many are looking at the fairness doctrine,

and it seems like that's a direct reference to that old policy. So joining me to discuss this is a lawyer

who knows things about the Fairness Doctrine. A prodigal son returning and president of tech

freedom, Baron Soka. Baron, welcome back to the United States. I wish I could say I was happy to be

back. You escaped. You were not in the United States during the election. No, I went as far as I

possibly could back in time to Petra Jordan, which is a superb site

if you're into archaeology and exactly the right time zone to miss the entire election evening.

You go to bed before the polls have closed.

You wake up and hold things over.

Best way to do it.

So if you're ever down about a, you know,

unusually negative election with two unpopular candidates, Baron Soker recommends that you go

to Petra. So there you go, because that way you can go to sleep and wake up and the whole thing's

over. But, Baron, let's start with the fairness doctrine before getting to the obviously huge topic

of fake news on Facebook.

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