Earlier this week, the FCC, on it's own motion eliminated several obsolete rules from Parts 1, 73 and 76. Some of the rules included those related to the TV "broadcast flag" which was intended to thwart piracy as well as the so-called "Fairness Doctrine".
The "Fairness Doctrine" was one of the last of the regulations on the book that made broadcasters accountable to the communities that they are licensed to. Unenforced for the past few decades, the Fairness Doctrine required broadcasters to air opposing viewpoints to commentary made over the air.
With the Doctrine watered down, the door was opened for secular and religious broadcasters to use the airwaves to give "one-way" opinions on issues and not allowing members of the community to give opposing views. Many of these opinions can be viewed as hatred towards groups including GLBT/T (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and transsexual), Hispanics and Islam.
REC feels that these broadcasters were issued a piece of the public spectrum and a piece of the public trust and they are under obligation to serve their community, not just their coffers.
Organizations such as the National Religious Broadcasters see localism as a threat because they feel that it will impose regulations similar to the Fairness Doctrine. REC opposes any regulation of the context of the content but we do support regulation that would assure that more content is created locally and addresses aspects of the issue that are specific to the community the station serves. REC also feels that localism regulation should reflect in the diversity of broadcast ownership. While it can be appropriate to see a Clear Channel, CBS and EMF on the dial, it should be offset significantly by local ownership with a focus on minorities, women and GLBT/T.
Why does NRB feel threatened by localism? Perhaps it is the same reason why some fundamentalists homeschool their children, to prevent their children from being exposed to a diversity of ideas on the critical issues of today. They feel that their few national voices should be the way that everyone should think. Who is NRB really defending?, local pastors or perhaps the mega ministries that are seeking their own domination of the dial. One of these mega ministries advocated a "rapture" that resulted in animals being put to their death, children being put in the hospital and people losing their life savings. Another is recognized by the Southern Poverty Law Center (a nationwide watchdog of hate groups) as a group that promotes hate that was recently in Texas trying to erase the fine line between church and state with a giant gum eraser.
REC recently supported streamlining but maintaining public file regulations and specifically the maintenance of "issues lists". A station addressing a local issue does not mean they have to address all sides of an issue but at least the local issue was addressed.
Localism is not about content, but content origination. Just like how the First Amendment allows groups like Westboro Baptist Church to protest at military funerals, it allows religious broadcasters to propagate non-factual information about and their hatred towards gays and muslims over the radio. While we support the right to free speech, we feel that the use of the public trust of the broadcast radio or television spectrum dictates that those people should be local and accountable to their entire community of license.
