RELAX: FAIRNESS DOCTRINE REVIVAL WON’T HAPPEN

REVIVAL TALK MAKES GOOD SOUNDBITES BUT THIS ISN’T IN THE CARDS

One piece of fallout from the tragic shootings in Tucson that seriously wounded a Congresswoman and killed six bystanders is talk about reviving The Fairness Doctrine. Opponents of conservative talk radio in particular are using the killings to tout a return to a federally-mandated policy that would certainly spell ruin for much of talk radio as we know it today. If you manage a talk station, relax. The Fairness Doctrine is dead and buried – and it’s going to stay that way.

Your view about a possible return to required equal time for opposing views may be shaped by which flavor of conspiracy you prefer. For some, there’s a vast conspiracy of the right to override reasonable discourse via talk radio. For most of talk radio, there’s a vast conspiracy of the left to muzzle their good works with shackles such as The Fairness Doctrine or something like it. Most of America is caught in the middle and, I suspect, is fed up with the whole debate.

The Dirty Little Secret About “Conservative” Talk Radio

Look, we’re grownup professional broadcasters here. You and I both know the lowdown on most so-called “conservative” talk radio hosts: It’s a gig. It’s their shtick. They no more go to bed at night praying to the God of Conservative Babble than classic country jocks hit the hay after making sacrifices to Ernest Tubb. You now it, I know it, they know it.

A lot of the listening public knows it, too. And as professionals, we aren’t about to put Rush or Hannity or any of them on the air if they aren’t:

• Entertaining
• Compelling
• Sold

It’s no different from any other format choice except that talk radio inflames both mind and mouth at both ends of the political spectrum.

All of which means that talk radio requires nothing like government-mandated rules about what it can say (within the law, that is) and whose voices it may include or exclude.

Know who else knows this? The Obama Administration. The FCC. And every member of Congress.

Shackling the Media: Always A Favorite

It’s always good copy for a politician to strike out at “the media”. And let’s face it, we’ve made ourselves popular targets. We’re the ones with the microphones, the cameras, the Bully Pulpit. Rush may have revolutionized AM radio programming but he also pinned a target on it that any politico can site in easily and often. The outcry over the supposed palpability of talk radio in the Tucson tragedy has given the green light to some politicians to harp about the good old days when anything you said about someone required an offer of equal time. It was unwieldy then, listeners didn’t care and it somehow smacked of Big Brother giving the gate (to use a favorite hockey phrase) to  free expression.

And this has right wing talk hosts squealing with delight. It’s fodder for their never-ending shtick machine, which cannot survive and thrive without the threat of that vast conspiracy I mentioned earlier. Okay by me. It’s compelling radio. I don’t have to treat it as a religion.

You Can’t Put Back What People Don’t Want

The Fairness Doctrine was introduced in 1949, when the broadcasting landscape was vastly different from today's. No revival effort has so much as made it out of committee in the nearly quarter century since Ronald Reagan abolished it by Executive Order. It won’t this time, either. If President Obama doesn’t have it on his agenda and Democrats at the FCC aren’t supporting it, who’s left to champion such legislation? Almost no one. It’s only being spoken of now by opportunistic politicians and talk show hosts.

At the grass roots level, The Fairness Doctrine won’t resurface for the same reason that you’ll never again see Prohibition and the military draft: they’re politically iffy, difficult and expensive to implement and wildly unpopular.

At the professional level, it simply isn’t needed. Talk radio has saved the entire AM band. With few exceptions, it’s professionally presented and whether or not you agree with its politics, you and I know it’s nothing more or less than a strong format.

So sleep soundly, talk station manager. Your format is safe and sound. And the government knows it has many better things to do.