NRB Issues Statement On Genachowski's Support Of End Of Fairness Doctrine

Looks For End Of Fairness Doctrine

NATIONAL RELIGIOUS BROADCASTERS (NRB) released a statement regarding the announcement by FCC Chairman JULIUS GENACHOWSKI this week that he supports deleting the Fairness Doctrine from the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).  The statement read as follows:

“Since 2003, NRB has been warning Congress that the Fairness Doctrine was not dead, and if ever revived it would be the death knell of religious broadcasting.  NRB has long opposed this pernicious rule, which enabled the FCC to compel broadcasters to air opposing viewpoints on controversial issues that the government decided to be of public importance.  Yet reasonable people from every political persuasion agree that the Fairness Doctrine is an idea whose time has long since passed," said NRB President/CEO Dr. FRANK WRIGHT.

"The fundamental objective of the First Amendment is to protect the free marketplace of ideas from interference by the government itself.  Our nation’s religious liberties are far too fragile, and too precious, to be left at the mercy of a government bureaucracy.  With the much needed action by the FCC, the next critical step in the defense of free speech rests with the CONGRESS.  The passage of the Broadcaster Freedom Act will ensure that no future FCC administration will abridge free speech by reinstating another fairness doctrine-type regulation.”

“It is encouraging news that the FCC Chairman is willing to call for the removal of the long-abandoned and totally discredited 'Fairness Doctrine’ rule, including all of its subparts, from the Code of Federal Regulations," said NRB Sr. VP and General Counsel CRAIG PARSHALL.  “The failure to have removed it by now appears to have been be an anomaly, but it continued to fuel justified suspicions that the free-speech-strangling rule was not really dead after all.  We look forward to the Chairman launching an immediate Commission action to make his intent official.  We also urge Chairman GENACHOWSKI to advise House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman FRED UPTON (R-MI) on the timetable for this important technical correction.  Protection of First Amendment rights requires that the FCC act with all deliberate speed.”

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