FCC to Delete Fairness Doctrine Language in Rulebook Cleanup
The FCC will formally and finally delete mention of the Fairness Doctrine from its code of federal regulations, under an order by the Media Bureau, the FCC said Monday. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski had told House Republicans such a rule change was imminent. The change, which has no practical effect because the rule had not been enforced in 20 years, is part of a broader effort at the agency to clean up its rule books by eliminating redundant and obsolete rules. References to the FCC’s “Broadcast Flag” copy protection rules, already overturned by a court, are also set to be removed.
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Deleting the Fairness Doctrine rules and others related to it will “remove an unnecessary distraction,” Genachowski said Monday. “Striking this from our books ensures there can be no mistake that what has long been a dead letter remains dead,” he said. The review of out-dated rules was sparked by the recent executive order on regulation and independent agencies. In total, the FCC will delete 83 media rules under the order, FCC officials said. More than 50 of them are from Part 1 of the FCC’s rules that simply reference other rules in Part 73, they said. Beyond the Fairness Doctrine and Broadcast Flag rules being eliminated, the FCC is also removing basic cable rate regulations that expired in 1999.
It’s good that the FCC is deleting the Fairness Doctrine from the code of federal regulations, but it’s unlikely they remained on the books intentionally, said Randolph May, president of the Free State Foundation, which pushes for fewer regulations. And while it’s good for the FCC to remove outdated rules, it should also look at unnecessary rules that it is still enforcing, May said. “I'm interested in really seeing the commission follow through on the stated intent to look at what other rules should be eliminated,” he said. “Then we would be talking about rules that are actually being enforced, rather than ones that have remained on the books, perhaps inadvertently, but in any event had no practical effect."
It’s not clear why the FCC had to kill the Fairness Doctrine twice, Commissioner Michael Copps said in a statement emailed to reporters. “Instead of burying the dead, we should be breathing new life into the Commission’s real duty to promote localism, diversity and competition in our media,” Copps said. He said the commission should focus its efforts on the “challenges that face broadcast news in the 21st century” such as “Where have all our journalists gone and why?”