Abstract
What guarantees the fairness of broadcast news—government regulation or a commercial marketplace of ideas? In the United States, the death of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987 ended four decades of regulation requiring broadcasters to address controversial public issues and cover them in ways that reflect contrasting viewpoints. Opponents of the Fairness Doctrine prevailed by arguing that it violated the First Amendment, that the marketplace provided a better guarantee of fairness than the Federal Communications Commission, and that the problem of spectrum scarcity, which limited the number of voices with access to the airwaves, had been removed by the widespread supply of local and national news through cable and satellite channels.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | What's Fair? |
Subtitle of host publication | The Problem of Equity in Journalism |
Publisher | Taylor & Francis |
Pages | 85-90 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Edition | 1st |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781351299398 |
ISBN (Print) | 0765806169, 9781351299404 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1998 |
Externally published | Yes |