42. Insure Fair Media

WHEREAS it use to be a FCC rule that in order to receive and retain a FCC license for radio or TV that licensees must abide by the fairness doctrine which mandated they give equal time to opposing viewpoints, and

WHEREAS under Ronald Regan the FCC dropped the Fairness Doctrine as a licensing condition,

WHEREAS In 1987 Ronald Reagan vetoed a Congressional bill requiring FCC airwaves licensees such as radio and TV stations to apply the fairness doctrine

WHEREAS In 1989  President George Bush threatened to veto it a second Senate bill intended to revive the Fairness Doctrine

WHEREAS the lack of a Fairness Doctrine has allowed a few powerful media corporations such as Fox News to engage in nonstop political propaganda which is entirely one-sided and falsely presented as news,

WHEREAS our media is now primarily in the hands of a few corporations,

WHEREAS a free and diverse media is necessary for an informed electorate, now

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Democratic Party instructs its lawmakers to

• Support reinstituting the Fairness Doctrine as a condition of TV and Radio licensing;
• Support Public Television and Radio in insure it is protected from government interference;
• Repeal the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and enacting law to remedy inequities in media control and use;
• Enact a law requiring all broadcast license holders to provide adequate free airtime to political candidates as a condition of getting their FCC license;
• Forbid single market cross-media ownership (between radio and television, or between broadcast and print media);
• Reduce or eliminate TV advertising directed at children;
• Require license holders to provide one hour daily of prime time commercial-free local news programming.
• Establish a system for community-level, non-profit, and non-commercial radio and TV nationwide.