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15 First Amend. L. Rev. 331 (2016-2017)
How the FCC Killed the Fairness Doctrine: A Critical Evaluation of the 1985 Fairness Report Thirty Years after Syracuse Peace Council

handle is hein.journals/falr15 and id is 353 raw text is: HOW THE FCC KILLED THE FAIRNESS DOCTRINE: A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE 1985 FAIRNESS REPORT THIRTY YEARS AFTER S YI ACUSE PEA CE COUNCIL Mark R. Arbuckle, Ph.D.* INTRODUCTION The year 2017 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC's) elimination of the broadcast Fairness Doctrine in Syracuse Peace Council.' This ruling, upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia,2 eliminated fairness rules that had been in place since the 1940s. The broader principle of broadcast fairness, including fairness and access rules for political candidates,3 goes back to the earliest days of broadcasting in the 1920s.4 Since 1949 broadcasters had been formally required to air controversial issues of public importance and provide reasonable opportunities for presentation of opposing views as part of their mandate to serve the public interest.' Unlike the fairness rules enacted specifically for the benefit of political candidates, the Fairness Doctrine aimed to benefit the non-candidate general public by requiring broadcasters to present diverse viewpoints on important public issues. The FCC, in its 1949 Report on Editorializing,6 explained that broadcasters were required to play a conscious and positive * Mark R. Arbuckle, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas. 1 2 FCC Rcd. 5043 (1987). 2 Syracuse Peace Council v. FCC, 867 F.2d 654 (D.C. Cir. 1989), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 1019 (1990). 3 Section 18 of the 1927 Radio Act and section 315 of the 1934 Communication Act required broadcasters to provide fair access to political candidates. See Radio Act of 1927, Pub. L. No. 69-632, 44 Stat. 1162, repealed by Communications Act of 1934, Pub. L. No. 73-416, 48 Stat. 1064 (codified as amended at 47 U.S.C. § 151 (1996)). 4 Fairness for candidates was a topic of considerable debate leading up to passage of the 1927 Radio Act. See LOUISE. M. BENJAMIN, FREEDOM OF THE AIR AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST: FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS IN BROADCASTING TO 1935, 32-54 (2001); STEVEN J. SIMMONS, THE FAIRNESS DOCTRINE AND THE MEDIA 16-27 (1978); David H. Ostroff, Equal Time: Origins ofSection 18 ofthe Radio Act of1927, 24 J. OF BROAD. 367 (1980). 5 See Report on Editorializing by Broadcast Licensees, 13 F.C.C. 1246 (1949) (hereinafter 1949 Report on Editorializing). 61jd.

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