[EAS] EAS Digest, Vol 70, Issue 42

[John Willkie]

The Court of Appeals case that "opened the door" to eliminating the Fairness Doctrine was "Syracuse Peace Council" a precis of the case:
http://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1939&context=lawreview

The 'holding' of the decision: "The intrusion by government into the content of programming occasioned by the enforcement of the Fairness Doctrine restricts the journalistic freedom of broadcasters ... [and] actually inhibits the presentation of controversial issues of public importance to the detriment of the public and the degradation of the editorial prerogative of broadcast journalists."

As another interesting angle, the Commission, in it's history, had never found an issue that was a "controversial matter of public importance."

In the case examined above, the Syracuse Peace Council wanted the FCC to rule that "nuclear proliferation" was a controversial matter of public importance, but the FCC didn't see it that way.

I followed this case from the "first paper" filed by Syracuse Peace Council. Note, the court didn't get to the constitutional issue, but the FCC and Congress did subsequently delve into it all and decided there was no way to make it constitutional, even though the critters passed a bill that R. Reagan vetoed.

Best;

John Willkie johnwillkie at hotmail.com johnwillkie at etherguidesystems.com
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