Did Republicans Shoot Themselves In Foot on the "Fairness Doctrine"

My recollection is that the left dominated everything but radio when the Fairness Doctrine was proposed back in the 1990s. The only thing that's changed is that they're not even trying to act impartial now.

In fact the argument I heard from the right back then was, "That's a terrific idea. When are we going to apply it to TV news and the papers?" And that was about the time the Fairness Doctrine vanished.

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My recollection is that the left controlled everything but radio when the Fairness Doctrine was proposed back in the 1990s. The only thing that's changed is that they're not even trying to act impartial now.

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The fairness doctrine of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), introduced in 1949, was a policy that required the holders of broadcast licenses both to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was—in the FCC's view—honest, equitable, and balanced. The FCC eliminated the policy in 1987 and removed the rule that implemented the policy from the Federal Register in August 2011

Conservative radio exploded in the 1980's in a big way with Rush leading the way. I was fond of G. Gordon Liddy..Ha Ha

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Conservative radio exploded in the 1980's in a big way with Rush leading the way. I was fond of G. Gordon Liddy..Ha Ha

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Ken Hamblen, the Black Avenger, was a favorite of mine.

You're conflated two issues. The 'control of nearly all media' that you're talking about has always been left wing. It's just on a larger scale of outlets and with less pretense of objectivity.

The more recent attempt to attack talk radio with the fairness doctrine has failed. The idea was to eliminate talk radio.
An analogy:

The Fairness Doctrine will tell KEEL radio in Shreveport that if you want to carry Rush then you have to carry the new AOC Talks About Communism Show.
KEEL says 'We can't sell advertising for that.'
Law: 'Then cancel Rush and you shall be in compliance.'
KEEL cancels rush and mission accomplished for the Dems. That plan failed. They might try it again some day.

I think the idea of government regulating "fairness" in public media is abhorrent.

That said, I willing to try a pilot program on social media such as Reddit, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

They are already heavily liberal so best case it becomes more fair and worse case it just becomes a regulatory nightmare for these companies.

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My recollection is that the left dominated everything but radio when the Fairness Doctrine was proposed back in the 1990s. The only thing that's changed is that they're not even trying to act impartial now. In fact the argument I heard from the right back then was, "That's a terrific idea. When are we going to apply it to TV news and the papers?" And that was about the time the Fairness Doctrine vanished.

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Fairness doctrine was established in 1940 something (46 I think) and was the law of the land until 1987. About the same time that right wing talk radio took off nationally and the entrenchment of the "liberal" and "conservative" camps began....

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Now the Liberals are virtually in control of nearly all media and I would love for conservative views to get equal time...

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Fairness Doctrine only had authority over those who held held public licenses regulated by the FCC.Most all of cable TV or satillite radio is exempt.

The only area that it would have any effect on is broadcast radio which is already dominated by conservatives.