Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) has introduced the "H.R. 501: Fairness and Accountability in Broadcasting Act," an attempt to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, which was done in back in the 80s under the Reagan administration. The payment of 240K by the Education Department to commentator Armstrong Williams is one of the engines driving this latest stab at bringing the Doctrine back to life.

Slaughters' bill cites the "public interest" obligation of broadcasters, used 40 times in the Communications Act of 1934, then notes developments since the rescission of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987.

The bill states, "News consumers, particularly those of talk radio, are overwhelmingly exposed to a single point of view...This imbalance results in issues of public importance receiving little or no attention, while others are presented in a manner not conducive to the listeners' receiving the facts and range of opinions necessary to make informed decisions."

It continues, "The 2004 survey, done by Democracy Radio, round that there were 2,349 hours of local conservative programs broadcast every week versus 555 hours of local progressive programs, and 39,382 hours of national conservative programs broadcast every week versus 2,487 hours of national progressive programs."

The bill would reduce the FCC license renewal cycle from eight to four years, and would require that every licensee hold two public hearings annually "...to ascertain the needs and interests of the communities they are licensed to serve." There would also be a hearing two months prior to license renewal.

There is now a website up and running urging renewal of the Doctrine - - fairnessdoctrine.com is endorsed by watchdogs Democracy Radio, Media Matters for America and Media Access Project.

RBR observation:
As long as Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and Tom Delay (R-TX) are setting the agenda in the House of Representatives, Slaughter may as well attempt to roll a snowball though Death Valley in August. All the Democrats can really hope to do is make as much noise as possible.