First, we know that nothing is ever really dead in gubment. A change in executive branch policy could revive this unconstitutional rule and have it enforced by the unconstitutional FCC (very Soviet of them, isn't it?)...

But this is a good move as it stands. The so-called "fairness doctrine" never had anything to do with fairness. It promoted the false idea that the federal gubment has a place in regulating the content of ideas broadcast over the airwaves. It was used to shake-down broadcasters and limit opposing points of view, and it hurt market incentives to provide for the audience what they wanted to hear.

It was predicated on a mis-reading of the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution, and by the fallacious idea that since there was a limit to bandwidth in the radio spectrum, somehow, the government had to control it, and control what was said over it.

Insane. When the "fairness doctrine" was lifted during Reagan's era, the choices of content on the radio blossomed and expanded. Good riddance to the old FCC controls.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/61851.html

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