Posted 12:06 PM by Floyd

One salutary side effect of California's recall election may be the death by reductio ad absurdum of the last shreds of the FCC's "Fairness Doctrine," which would be more accurately named the "Keep People Uninformed Doctrine." I quote from Jeff Jarvis' weblog:

Thanks to the innane FCC equal-time rule -- and to his company's spineless lawyers and bosses -- Howard Stern was forced to cancel an interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger this morning.

This was going to be Schwarzenegger's first major interview and it would have been informative. Stern is a great interviewer and he'd be asking the questions the voters would want asked. On the weekend gab shows, they tried to make fun of Schwarzenegger's media choice but George Stephanopoulos got it right: He said Stern's is the No. 1 show in California and Schwarzenegger is going where the voters are.

But the voters won't get to hear what Schwarzenegger has to say under questioning because of the equal time rule. Stern's dimwitted station manager and wimpy lawyers said that if he talked to Arnold, he'd have to talk to all 130 candidates. Stern begged them to fight and get an FCC exemption but they didn't.

This is wrong on so many levels. Stern's show is facing this fight because he's not considered news (hey, there's just as much fluff on three hours of the Today Show -- and Stern makes a helluva lot more news than any other show) and also because the FCC has a hard-on for him. The FCC -- the government -- should not be in a position to determine what is news and what isn't and what we can and cannot hear. As a result of this rule and its unfair enforcement, it's the electorate that suffers. Instead of assuring that we are better informed, we are less informed. That is the government infringing free speech and the free market of ideas. That is wrong.

So Howard Stern is not allowed to interview Schwarzenegger unless he gives equal time to all other gubernatorial candidates, including a swordfish. Isn't it time to give up on the Fairness Doctrine, and accept that Rush Limbaugh is going to have a popular radio show no matter what the FCC does?