Posted by Eugene Volokh:
Some Fairness Doctrine History:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_10_07-2007_10_13.shtml#1192153641
You may have seen snippets of this account before, as I have; here,
though, is a pretty substantial excerpt, from Fred W. Friendly, The
Good Guys, the Bad Guys and the First Amendment, pp. 39-42 (1975):
Bill Ruder, an Assistant Secretary of Commerce in the Kennedy years
and an acknowledged leader in public relations, says frankly, "Our
massive strategy [in the early 1960s] was to use the Fairness
Doctrine to challenge and harass right-wing broadcasters and hope
that the challenges would be so costly to them that they would be
inhibited and decide it was too expensive to continue." ...
[Arthur Larson, chair of NCCR, one of the groups used for this
purpose], who had long been a target of the radical right, recalls
his role in the NCCR with embarrassment. "The whole thing was not
my idea," he says, "but let's face it, we decided to use the
Fairness Doctrine to harass the extreme right. In the light of
Watergate, it was wrong. We felt the ends justified the means. They
never do." ...
In retrospect, [Martin E.] Firestone, now a prominent Washington
communications lawyer representing station owners -- a number of
whom would want him to help repeal the Fairness Doctrine -- admits,
"Perhaps in the light of Watergate, our tactics were too
aggressive, but we were up against ultra-right preachers who were
saying vicious things about Kennedy and Johnson." ...
Whatever lessons hindsight has taught, this campaign in 1964
against right-wing broadcasts was at the time considered a success
by its creators. In a summary written during the closing days of
the presidential election, Firestone pointed with pride to 1,035
letters to stations that produced a total of 1,678 hours of free
time from stations carrying McIntire, Dean Manion and Smoot. Both
he and [Wayne] Phillips felt a genuine sense of accomplishment.
In a report to the Democratic National Committee, Phillips wrote:
"Even more important than the free radio time was the effectiveness
of this operation in inhibiting the political activity of these
right-wing broadcasts ..." In a confidential report to Phillips and
the DNC, Firestone stressed the nature of the campaign that "may
have inhibited the stations in their broadcast of more radical and
politically partisan programs." ... "... Were our efforts to be
continued on a year-round basis, we would find that many of these
stations would consider the broadcasts of these programs bothersome
and burdensome (especially if they are ultimately required to give
us free time) and would start dropping the programs from their
broadcast schedule."
So it sounds like the Fairness Doctrine didn't just have the potential
for deterring controversial speech -- its users, including its most
sophisticated, well-organized, and politically well-connected users,
saw the potential and deliberately used the Doctrine for this very
purpose. Seems pretty likely that the same thing will happen if the
Doctrine were resurrected, though the Internet should make it easy to
mobilize many more than 1000 letters of complaint.
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