NRB President Warns About Fairness Doctrine

Fort Lauderdale, FL (March 17, 2010) – The reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine will have a chilling effect on the free speech rights of broadcasters, warns Dr. Frank Wright, President of the National Religious Broadcasters, on the March 21 Coral Ridge Hour program.

The Federal Communications Commission rule, abolished in 1987, required that stations allow for the airing of opposing viewpoints on controversial subjects. Numerous members of Congress, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have expressed support for reinstating the Fairness Doctrine.

Wright expresses concern on the program about giving federal bureaucrats the right to determine what is “controversial.”

“The government would make that determination,” said Wright, who leads an international association of Christian communicators whose member organizations represent millions of listeners, viewers, and readers. In essence, “you have a government intrusion into speech at the outset, because the government would decide which speech is controversial and which speech is not.

“The Founders of our country would have found absolutely anathema this idea of the government being involved in the direction of speech. That’s why we have a First Amendment,” Wright said.

Under the Fairness Doctrine, Christian media will begin to “self-censor,” Wright said, “avoiding portions of Scripture that the government might deem to be ‘controversial.’”

Furthermore, radio and television station license holders will pull the plug on programs—like The Coral Ridge Hour—upon receiving Fairness Doctrine complaints, Wright warned.

“They won’t want to deal with the regulatory regime that requires them to go out and find an opposing viewpoint.”

“I have talked to broadcasters who operated under the Fairness Doctrine under the old regime, and they said it absolutely had a chilling effect on what programs they carried,” he said.

Wright said the broadcast regulation poses such a significant threat—not just to free speech, but to religious free speech and religious free exercise—that he has met with FCC commissioners, congressmen, and senators, “to express our concern about the government control of speech—because ultimately that’s what this policy is all about.”

While some in leadership have stated their opposition to reinstating the FCC policy, “it doesn’t mean that they’re not in favor of seeing elements of the Fairness Doctrine enacted in some other form,” he warned.

Viewers who tune in to the Sunday broadcast may request a petition that calls on Congress to support the Broadcaster Freedom Act, a measure that permanently repeals the Fairness Doctrine. The program also offers viewers the Robert Knight book, The Silencers: How Liberals Are Trying to Shut Down Media Freedom in the U.S.

“Just imagine turning on your radio or television to discover that the programs you listen to for inspiration and information on today’s issues are gone,” said Dr. Jerry Newcombe, host of The Coral Ridge Hour program. “It could happen. Let’s put this battle to rest once and for all by urging our leaders to pass the Broadcaster Freedom Act.”

Coral Ridge Ministries is a Christian media outreach founded by the late Dr. D. James Kennedy. Its programming reaches a national television, radio, and Internet audience at www.coralridge.org.



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