The FCC: On the death of the fairness doctrine.
Unf*cking The Republic
UNFTR Media
4.9 • 683 Ratings
🗓️ 24 September 2022
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week we finally heed the call to Unf*ck the Federal Communications Commission (FCC.) We don’t get all the way there (it’s been around since 1934) but we manage to tackle the fairness doctrine, which was intended to provide balance and equal time in broadcasting and was repealed in 1987. Many credit this Reagan-era move as the beginning of the end of civility, leading to the divide in the nation today. But, of course, the story behind the doctrine is far more nuanced. We review a history of the FCC, its limitations and whether or not the fairness doctrine ever really had a place in America given the natural tension with the First Amendment.
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Chapters
Intro: 00:03:53
Chapter One: What is the FCC and why should we give a shit? 00:04:51
Chapter Two: To be fair, it was never really a doctrine. 00:13:35
Chapter Three: Fairness in the eye of the withholder. 00:24:57
Chapter Four: Bring it home, Max. 00:33:27
Post Show Musings: 00:39:36
Book Love: 00:40:22
Outro: 00:49:35
Resources
Congressional Quarterly: Broadcasting Deregulation
UNFTR Episode Resources
Manufacturing Dissent: How We Let an Aussie Destroy the U.S.
The Economics of Racism: Bootstraps, Black Banks and Redlining.
Book Love
Steven J. Simmons: The Fairness Doctrine and the Media
Brian J. Karem: Free the Press: The Death of American Journalism and How to Revive It
Ken Auletta: Backstory: Inside the Business of News
Bernard Harcourt: The Illusion of Free Markets: Punishment and the Myth of Natural Order
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | UNFTR |
| 0:02.0 | Turn a knob, push a button, twist a dial. |
| 0:11.0 | Voices and music wing their way around the world with the speed of light. |
| 0:16.0 | The miracle of radio is accepted today as commonplace. |
| 0:25.1 | Yesterday's most fanciful dreams are now everyday realities. |
| 0:32.7 | On a scale of 1 to 10, with the 10 being the most quenchable and actionable episode we've ever done, |
| 0:35.4 | this will come in around a 0.5. |
| 0:41.0 | Thought I would save you some time in advance unless you're in the mood to shout at the rain with me for the next 45 minutes or so. |
| 0:44.2 | The subject today is communications. |
| 0:50.2 | More specifically, the Federal Communications Commission and the death of the fairness doctrine. |
| 0:58.0 | We're going to return to the subject of the FCC in a couple of weeks to drill into other things the FCC has killed, like competition and net neutrality. But in order to lay the groundwork for understanding communication, media, and information in the United States, |
| 1:04.0 | it's critical to explain the rise and fall of the Fairness Doctrine. |
| 1:09.0 | When all the sections are complete, we'll piece them together |
| 1:11.4 | in a singular masterpiece, ManiFaces style. This has been long in the works, and if you're |
| 1:17.2 | still here and decided to take the leap with me, you'll understand why this is a wholly unsatisfying |
| 1:22.6 | journey. Now, don't get me wrong, there's plenty of meat on the bone. I told you to stop saying that. |
| 1:28.7 | Right. Sorry. There's a lot to unpack. |
| 1:32.1 | Is there a more overused word than unpack? |
| 1:35.3 | Oh, my God. Leave her out of this. |
| 1:37.4 | Okay, none of this is helping. All right. Let me try to set this up the right way. |
| 1:42.8 | The subject of communications is rife with tension. |
| 1:47.0 | There are very few straightforward measures that we can pursue to improve the state of the media. |
... |
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