Washington — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is making Christian broadcasters nervous. By Mallika Rao, The Salt Lake Tribune
Pelosi, D-Calif., recently said she supports resurrecting the Fairness Doctrine, a 1949 Federal Communications Commission policy that required broadcasters who sent out specific messages to set aside time for opposing views.
Such a move would “really make it impossible to preach the whole counsel of God,” said Rich Bott, owner of Kansas-based Bott Radio Network, which broadcasts Christian programming across 10 states.
It would also, he said, likely put him out of business.
Put in place nearly 50 years ago, the doctrine was an FCC regulation that policed the airwaves at a time when there were few other sources of information. It never carried the full weight of the law.
By the 1980s, with the advent of cable television and multiple opportunities to air differing opinions, the policy fell out of favor and was finally ditched by the FCC in 1987.
While Pelosi hasn’t offered legislation to reinstate the policy, she has signaled that she supports its revival, and said a bill introduced by Rep. Mike Spence, R-Ind., to permanently kill it will not be considered by the Democratic-controlled House.
If the Fairness Doctrine were to be reinstated by Congress, broadcasters would be legally forced to follow the old protocol: one-third of the airtime given to one opinion must be offered free of charge to opponents.
“We’ve been in broadcasting for over 45 years so we remember what it was like under the previous regime of the so-called Fairness Doctrine,” Bott said. “What we had to do then would be impossible today.”
A half-century ago, Christians were a distinct cultural and political majority and there were fewer dissenting views to accommodate. Numerically, they still hold sway, but compete against large numbers of other faiths and points of view.
“If someone were to assert that God has ordained marriage as only between a man and woman, that would be a controversial statement today,” he said. ”Someone will ask for time.”
Silencing Christian radio is not the goal of lawmakers who are pushing the “fairness” bill. Their target? Rush Limbaugh and friends.
When last year’s immigration bill failed in the Senate, Pelosi and other Democratic leaders blamed its demise on talk-show hosts like Limbaugh, who they said galvanized the public against it.
Most critics say the doctrine is unlikely to be reinstated and is being used by the left as an empty threat and by the right as a rallying cry. Still, Christian broadcasters are bracing for its re-emergence, said Frank Wright, president of the National Religious Broadcasters.
“This is not the time to despair,” he said. “If all these bad things happen, we’re going to sue immediately.”
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