McDowell Warns of Fairness Doctrine Revival Under New Name
Commissioner Robert McDowell said there’s a continuing threat of a return of the Fairness Doctrine, which could be revived in legislation under a different name or perhaps in a pending FCC rulemaking. Speaking at a Media Institute lunch Wednesday, the commission’s only Republican acknowledged that legislators haven’t formally moved to reinstate the rule requiring broadcasters to cover opposing sides of some controversial issues. But he said recent remarks by members of Congress in support of the doctrine, dropped by the commission in 1987, could bear fruit and would let government stifle political views.
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The Internet, cable and satellite TV and other new media seem to undercut the spectrum scarcity that underlies much current broadcast regulation and would help get a revived Fairness Doctrine thrown out in court, McDowell said. Lawmakers previously sought to expand to doctrine to cable and other media, and some now want it to cover the Internet, he said. “Commenters, such as a prominent Harvard law professor who will be joining the Obama administration, [have] broached the idea of encouraging or maybe even requiring that partisan Web sites provide neutrally presented links to opposing points of view.” McDowell’s written remarks didn’t identify the professor. The administration of President Barack Obama can put an end to the speculation by making clear its “strong opposition to anything resembling the doctrine,” as aides already have done in comments to the media, McDowell added. “I think we all need to be vigilant” even though “we don’t know if it’s coming back,” he said in response to our question.
McDowell worried that current FCC proceedings like one on how well radio and TV stations serve their communities could be used as a vehicle to bring back parts of the doctrine. For instance, the idea of requiring stations to have community advisory boards, mentioned in a rulemaking notice on localism, strikes him as bringing back the doctrine “under a different name and sales pitch.” Net neutrality is another venue for the doctrine’s return, McDowell said. “Should it return again, I doubt it would be under the same label.”
McDowell confirmed that he'll give details of his plan to change how the FCC runs (CD Jan 28 p1) in a speech at a Federal Communication Bar Association event Monday. A broad review of commission operations is needed, as it would be at a company, because the “management” of the FCC is changing, McDowell said in a brief interview. “This is just a time for a due diligence review of the entire FCC,” he said. An audit of the agency may “reveal nothing” is amiss or identify areas needing change, added McDowell. Late Wednesday, the FCC released a copy of a letter to McDowell from acting Chairman Michael Copps that called the commissioner’s ideas “constructive.” Work to update FCC IT and Web systems, sought by McDowell, can begin now, Copps wrote, adding that he’s “already at work to improve our internal communications.”
McDowell spoke about how the FCC has already changed, drawing loud applause from attendees. He said he had just received an e-mail from the FCC Office of Legislative Affairs alerting him to the failure of a DTV delay bill to pass the House. (See separate report in this issue.) That office “is once again allowed to talk to commissioners” and that’s “big progress,” McDowell said. At the FCC, he said, “the air smells fresher, the food tastes better.”