WEBVTT - How the Fairness Doctrine Worked 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:03.880 Hey, everybody comes see us, because we're coming to see you. Specifically, 0:00:03.960 --> 0:00:07.240 if you live in Chicago. On July, we're gonna be 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:09.800 at the Harris Theater, and the following night we're going 0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:12.040 to be at the Dan Fourth Music Hall in Toronto. 0:00:12.240 --> 0:00:14.680 And that's just the beginning, that's right. We're also going 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:18.160 to our beloved Wilburt Theater, which we own in Boston 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:21.479 on October twenty nine, and then our first visit to Portland, 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:24.320 Maine at the State Theater in August. Yep. That's going 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:26.680 to be followed in October. We're gonna take a little 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:29.800 break because that's a lot of touring in October. On 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:31.840 the ninth we're going to be at the Plaza Live 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:34.839 in Orlando, and then on October ten, we're gonna be 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:37.680 at the Civic Theater in New Orleans, that's right. And 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:40.680 in October we're gonna round it all out at the 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:46.120 Bellhouse in Brooklyn for three shows October yep. So go 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:49.000 to s Y s K live dot com for tickets 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:52.080 and information and we will see you starting this July 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:57.080 in Chicago. Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production 0:00:57.120 --> 0:01:05.520 of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, welcome to 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:09.640 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles W. Chook Bryant, 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:15.360 and there's Jared Dog the road Land of All Time 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:19.319 over there, and this is stuff you should know. I 0:01:19.560 --> 0:01:21.720 gotta pep it up a little bit, you know? Is 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:26.200 that what that was? You gotta screw it up a 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:28.840 little bit, That's what I meant to say, speaking of 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:35.920 screwing up Chicago, Illinois, screwing up it is I was. 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:38.840 I was trying to think about this, like which approach 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:41.160 should we take. Should we should we just outright lie 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:43.040 and say, like, there's very few tickets left, so you 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:45.839 better go get them now now? Or should we shame 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:48.480 them and say there are plenty of tickets left, a 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:51.320 disappointing amount of tickets left. I think we should just 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:55.760 be honest and not shame them, but express our disappointment. 0:01:55.840 --> 0:02:02.320 Nothing works better then disappointment. You know, Chicago, we really 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:08.000 expected a little more from you than this. So if 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:11.800 you're confused about what we're talking about, probably because you 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:15.840 haven't heard, and that's our fault. About our live shows 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:19.959 coming up all around the country. Two cities we've never 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:23.680 been to before. Yeah, yeah, we've never been to Orlando before. 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:26.600 We've never been to Portland, Maine before, that's right. But 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:29.600 we are going to Chicago again because we thought Chicago 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:33.280 loved us in July at the Harris Theater and then 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:35.920 Toronto the next night on July. They're buying a lot 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:37.640 of tickets. They love us up there. Yeah, at the 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:40.880 Day and fourth. Uh. And then Boston August twenty nine, 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:44.799 Portland May and August, Orlando and New Orleans October nine 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:50.600 and ten, and then Brooklyn October three night run at 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:55.760 the Bellhouse in Brooklyn, which is gonna be great. But again, Toronto, 0:02:55.919 --> 0:02:59.800 you're doing great, guys. Keep it up. Chicago, you could 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:01.400 and to step it up a little bit. You've got 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:04.359 a little bit of time. But why wait you know, yeah, 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:05.959 I mean the seats are only going to get worse. 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:09.840 True dat, Chuck, true dat. So just go to s 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:14.480 y s K Live for our home or touring home 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:18.079 on the web thanks to our buddies at squarespace. Oh yeah, 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:22.519 and uh now let's talk about the fairness doctrine. Okay, 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:28.040 we actually need to um. If this were say, pre seven, 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:32.560 we would need to have Jerry come in and say, so, 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:34.920 here's all the reasons why you shouldn't buy tickets to 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:37.240 stuff you should know live if we were going to 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:41.120 follow the fairness doctrine. But it's not. And as a 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:44.920 matter of fact, I wonder how podcasting would how this 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:47.960 would apply or have applied to podcasting if it had 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:50.880 still been around, or if podcasting would have been one 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:53.640 of those things that kind of grew up around the 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:57.640 fairness doctrine. Who knows, but it's a fascinating Um what 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:02.080 are those called? When uh, when an impossible Sure there's 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:04.320 another word for it, when it's something that just can't 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:09.480 possibly happen, kind of like speculative fiction or something like that. 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:12.680 I can't remember. But you know, since podcast don't fall 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:15.160 under the FCC, then doubt if it would have mattered. 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:18.279 Oh yeah, I guess that's that's true. Huh, Yeah, we 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:20.719 could if we wanted to. Right now, we could say 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:24.120 every curse word, every awful thing in the world under 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:28.120 the sun. We elect not to do that everyone. I 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:31.919 heard a radio DJ the other day say, um, I 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:34.320 know you want to curse so bad right now, this 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:39.479 is why we're getting a podcast, And I was like, yeah, 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:42.159 I guess we could. I guess we could curse, but 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:44.600 it's I like that we don't chuck. I do too. 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:46.520 And if you want to hear me curse just a 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:49.840 you can come to a live show true because it 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:52.240 happens a little bit, or be you can just join 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:54.479 me over at movie crush. I cuss had a lot 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:57.920 over there. Yeah. I think at first people were like, oh, 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:02.039 and then now I think people go listen in part 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:04.320 to hear you curse. They like to hear that blue 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:08.159 streak coming out of the real me. Oh, I'd like 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:10.440 to think that both sides are the real You put 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:14.960 together well for roughly two and a half hours a week, 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:18.320 this is the real me. Do you find it difficult 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:21.120 not to curse on on the show? Uh? No, I 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.600 mean I'm fully used to it by now, but I 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:29.200 definitely am not as fully freewheeling as I normally am. Yeah, 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:30.839 I guess I should say I want to give the 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:33.960 impression that I'm like some you know, Flanders type or whatever, 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:38.960 curse pretty routinely myself in regular life. But I guess 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:41.480 I find a kind of comforting just knowing that there's 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:45.159 a there's a safe space where I don't say, the 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:48.720 afford a lot. You should start another podcast just called 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:55.200 filth Floren Filth with Josh Clark. Okay, that's a pretty 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:58.160 good idea. But none of this has to do with 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:01.000 the nineteen twenties except for the fact that people did 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:03.720 not curse on the radio back then either because there 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:05.240 weren't a lot of people on the radio in the 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:10.160 nineteen twenties. No, actually, pre or early early early nineteen twenties, 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:15.360 that is, right pre November nine, there was not much 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:18.400 going on on the radio aside from Morse Code, some 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:21.240 Ham Radio operators, and remember we did a pretty good 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:25.320 episode on Ham Radio, remember correctly. Yeah, Well, one of 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:28.279 the things I remember about that Ham Radio episode is 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:31.919 that there was a kind of a whole hacker antarchic 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:36.640 ethos um surrounding the early days of radio. You know, 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:38.800 it's just a total free for all. You can broadcast 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:41.680 on whatever station you wanted to and get in arguments with, 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:45.160 you know, the government if you wanted to, who who 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:47.640 cared there was. There was not a lot of ways 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:50.560 to trace anybody. So there was a lot of anything 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:55.039 goes mentality among the early Ham radio operators. But but 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:59.520 that was basically all you would hear is people saying like, um, like, hey, 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:02.880 how's it kind of thing. You know, maybe some heavy breathing. 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:08.279 And then in November, station called k d k A 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:12.760 actually organized itself and the first broadcast UM that it 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:16.720 put out was reading the election results from the James 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:22.240 Cock James Cox, Oh my gosh, I almost just violated 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:30.440 FCC rules dirty talk James Cox, Uh, Warren Harding presidential election. 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:35.760 It was the first commercial UM licensed radio broadcast in 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:39.480 the world. I think, yeah, I think that's a great 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:43.080 trivia question if someone were to say, what was what 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:45.760 city you know hosted or whatever was part of the 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:51.320 first radio commercial radio broadcast Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, uh, And the 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:55.239 follow up would be, and what did they broadcast federal 0:07:55.560 --> 0:07:59.680 a presidential election outcome? Which was a big deal because 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:03.760 it's weird to think about in ninety that people all 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:06.800 over the country we're waiting for that morning paper to 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:11.400 come out. Except in Pittsburgh. They knew, right, they did know, 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:13.760 And not everybody in Pittsburgh, just the people who had 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:16.880 basically built their own radios because that was the radios 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:21.200 that were around. They were pretty much pretty much. But 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:25.239 the fact that this happened in words spread pretty quickly. Yeah, 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:27.960 some people in Pittsburgh knew the election results because they 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:30.480 were listening to the radio, and they ran around yelling 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:32.920 that out and said we heard it on a radio, 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:36.839 and everyone's like these people, lock them up. Yeah. And 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:40.040 also other little known fact, the first song played on 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:45.520 the radio was Radio Killed the newspaper Star. Did you 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:47.319 just make that up? Or did you have that prep? 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:49.760 I just made it up? Okay, good job, thank you, 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:53.160 man Um, I'm glad I got like that. Grudging good 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:56.680 job because there was almost contempt in that first initial well, 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:59.240 because off the cuff, that's a great joke. But if 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:01.120 he works up that for a few hours, then I 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:04.480 nont no. When's the last time I workeshop the joke? 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:08.160 I don't know. Okay, you don't let you keep it 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:10.720 a close to the guarded secret. So okay. So here's 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:12.680 the point. This is the reason we're even talking about 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:16.760 that first broadcast is because that was November ninety. By 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:21.760 nine four, I think they're in in in like twenty 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:25.680 thousand radios n four. There are one and a half 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:30.640 million radios in the United States. By nineteen thirty eight 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:36.960 of every household in America had a radio, and so 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:42.480 there was this massive transition from distributing news and making 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:44.920 sure everybody was up to date on all the information 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:47.600 they needed to be like a smart voter or hold 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:52.280 like political or social or cultural opinions. Um. That transition 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:57.640 moved from newspapers from print, which still hung around, but 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:02.520 over to radio. Radio became team much um, much more 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:05.679 prevalent as far as the spread of information to an 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:10.160 increasingly large number of people went in the United States 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:14.800 in a very short time, in like twenty years. Yeah. So, um, 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:19.080 in the nineteen forties, the FCC and you know, there's 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:20.880 some background to all this that will get to but 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:25.160 we haven't even really said what the fairness doctrine is yet. Uh. 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:29.840 Finally in ninete um that the US government said, you 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:31.880 know what, we need some help here. We're a little 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:37.120 bit worried that um geez, somebody could some private citizen 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:39.840 who's wealthy could go and buy all the radio stations 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:44.719 and essentially propagandize the news and there's nothing we can 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:48.280 do about it. Yeah. So basically what they said was this, 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:50.080 there is one thing we can do about it. We 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:54.839 can flex our muscle as the government and specifically say 0:10:55.280 --> 0:11:01.440 you broadcasters can't do that, that's right. Via something called 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:06.199 the Fairness Doctrine, which had the overall goal of basically, 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:09.160 and it's it's very kind of cute to look back 0:11:09.200 --> 0:11:11.720 at this time period, but its initial goal was to 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:14.320 make sure that all the information on the on the 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:18.920 radio waves was good information and true and fair and enriching. 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:22.480 And there there's only so much space on a radio dial. 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:26.160 So and this is this is very critical that there 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:31.280 were a limited number of frequencies available. Yes, frequency scarcity. 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:33.679 I think, yeah, that's just put a pin in that, 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:36.120 because that's a very big deal. Is how this waighed 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:38.360 in the favor of the fairness doctrine and then also 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:41.640 kind of helped kill it in some ways. But basically, 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:46.480 the very progressive you that public interest outweigh private interest 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:50.199 in the public has a right to really good information 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:54.280 over the free speech of the broadcaster. Even yes, so 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:57.920 you just you just hit it right on the head 0:11:58.000 --> 0:12:00.280 like that is the crux of the fairness doc drin 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:03.880 And it seems like okay, depending on your viewpoint, either 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:09.800 either like the most um vile idea ever or just 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:13.760 a completely sensible idea. And the reason that it can 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:18.680 present the same these two totally different um opinions is 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:22.880 because this idea, the fairness doctrine, is it sits right 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:26.560 at the heart of the difference between the right and 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:32.280 the left, between conservativism and libertarianism and and liberalism right, 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:34.960 and it is it comes down to this, like if 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:41.640 you if you have to promote um public intercourse, like 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:45.920 people understanding not doing it in public, but I mean discourse, 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:50.160 the public intercourse. So yeah, I guess doing it in 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:54.439 public if you're going to promote public discourse and protected 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:57.800 as a government saying like the the like, it's the 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:00.680 role of government to say, we need to make sure 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:03.120 that the quality of the information that's getting out there 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:07.319 is protected, and and that we have to do that. 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:12.040 We have to limit what broadcasters can say. We have 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:15.160 to curtail free speech. Two people on the right like, 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:18.240 right there, full stop. That's a problem. That's an issue. 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:21.480 It's it has fatally flawed because you are curtailing the 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:25.840 free speech of somebody, whether it's a whether it's NBC 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:28.840 or Joe Schmo who wants to say something on the radio. 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:33.319 It doesn't matter. You're curtailing free speech, and therefore that 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:36.240 is wrong. People on the left say, well, whoa, whoa, 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:39.599 this is the this is this is a privilege to 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:44.439 broadcast on the radio. And in order to protect the 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:48.880 larger public and its interests, we have to curtail that 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:53.040 free speech of the very narrowed money, moneyed interests that 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:57.319 can afford a license to broadcasts. And and there's no 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:00.560 way to reconcile the two. You can't. It's you have 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:02.959 to choose a side. You have to form an opinion 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:06.400 one way or the other. And whatever you choose is 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:10.319 your larger view of whether you're a liberal or whether 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:14.840 you're conservative. Yeah, pretty much. Um, I mean it fell 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:17.839 along those lines back then and stilled us today. Even 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:21.320 though the fairness doctrine isn't around, the ideology is, well, 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:25.320 it keeps getting brought out and kind of you know, um, 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:28.840 forced along a like an angry parade route and in 0:14:28.960 --> 0:14:30.920 order to kind of say like, look, look, look what 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:33.200 the government is capable of doing. Look at the overreach 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:35.400 they really want to do. Don't let them do it 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:38.720 again with X. You know. So it is. It's a 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:42.040 huge flashpoint. And it's understandable why it seems like so 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:46.880 um kind of limp and bureaucratic and boring. But when 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:49.280 you dig into the history of the whole thing and 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:53.760 even the contemporary idea behind it, it's a huge flashpoint 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:56.800 politically in the United States. Yeah. So it had a 0:14:56.800 --> 0:14:59.960 couple of main components, and then within that a cup 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:03.880 of big, big rules, very important rules. The first the 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:08.280 components were UM They were known together as the fairness rule, 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:11.920 which is, private broadcasters must report on my matters of 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:15.800 public interest, like it's a responsibility of you as a broadcaster, 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:20.960 that's right. Uh. And private broadcasters must cover opposing perspectives 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:25.000 regarding that public interest. It's a that's a big one. 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:28.080 And then the little rules there, the personal attack rules 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:30.920 said that if you're a broadcaster and you are going 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:35.160 to run a negative story UM on somebody or something 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:37.560 prior to that, you have to let these people know 0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:40.880 or this organization know and give them time to respond 0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:44.440 on the air. And then the political editorial rule, which 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:49.000 is private broadcasters that air editorial programming that endorses a 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:52.760 political candidate must inform other candidates and offer them time 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:56.280 to respond on air. Uh. Not to be confused with 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:59.280 the equal time rule, that's that's different. Yeah. The equal 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:03.680 time rule is is why debates UM have are supposed 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:07.120 to have all candidates, because you're supposed to if you 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:10.640 give one candidate time air time to say, hey, here's 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:14.000 my platform. You're supposed to give all other candidates the 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:17.560 equal amount of time, and that that political editorial rule 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:20.200 kind of it's close to it, and it follows in 0:16:20.240 --> 0:16:23.640 the same tradition and principle. But really the personal attack 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:26.160 role and the political editorial rule that we're part of 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:29.280 the fairness doctrine, that's just like the foundation of of 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:32.960 good journalism. Basically, it was not they're not radical ideas. 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:37.280 That's good point. So the idea though that that public 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:41.080 that are that private broadcasters have to talk about issues 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:44.680 and then have to air opposing viewpoints, that is that 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:48.040 is kind of controversial because it's saying like he we 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:50.720 we the government are saying you have to do this, 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:53.760 this is your responsibility. And the idea that the government 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:57.760 even has control over air waves is is in dispute, 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:02.040 but it actually dates pretty are back and we'll talk 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:06.200 about the background, the backstory behind the fairness doctrine after 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:31.520 a message. How about that? It sounds good, okay, Chuck. 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:34.400 So there there's one thing to really understand what we're 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:37.439 talking about here. Initially we're talking about radio waves and 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:39.960 then eventually TV waves, and then that eventually turned into 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:44.200 the Internet. But all these things, especially something like air 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:48.880 air waves for a radio and TV, these exist naturally, right, 0:17:49.760 --> 0:17:54.280 There's not like a government factory that produces radio waves 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:56.840 and then the government can say, well, we we produce these, 0:17:56.840 --> 0:18:01.679 so we can divu that's a it's it's an artificial 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:05.760 idea that the government can say we regulate these air 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:09.120 waves because it's citizens listening to the stuff that's broadcast 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:12.040 on the airwaves, and it's private companies broadcasting on the 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:15.800 airwaves using equipment that's manufactured by other private companies. So 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:19.440 the government is insinuating itself and saying, well, well, this 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:23.320 is too important to leave to the market. We have 0:18:23.400 --> 0:18:25.399 to regulate this in some ways, and we're going to 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:28.640 do that. And the whole thing actually started, um with 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:32.119 the Titanic, to tell you the truth, the Titanic ship, 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:37.160 the Titanic ship, the very one ship that's right. Uh. 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:40.199 Leading up to the Titanic, you know, radio is being used, 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:44.640 um and quite a bit a maritime communication. Uh. In fact, 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:47.560 we even passed the Ship Act of nineteen ten, which 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:50.879 required ships leaving the United States to have radio equipment 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:53.760 to know how to use it, uh, and sort of 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:57.440 laid out some basic broadcasting standards. But what they didn't 0:18:57.480 --> 0:19:02.320 do was say, all right, we're gonna signed radio frequencies um, 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:06.359 and we're gonna like reserve a channel for emergencies only. Uh. 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:08.360 This kind of stung them because a couple of years 0:19:08.440 --> 0:19:13.000 after that, a little boat called the RMS Titanic ship 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:17.399 the Titanic, it wasn't a little boat, it was a 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:21.320 ocean liner. Sure, I used to know the difference between 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:27.159 ocean liner and a cruise ship. I think ocean liners 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:29.520 are trans atlantic. Is that is that the deal? I've 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:32.480 never heard the difference. I think that's it the same 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:35.160 or something. And I think an ocean liner specifically can 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:39.080 cross the two different continents. I got Yeah, I guess 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:41.160 the cruise ship could just hug the coast or something 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:45.680 like that. But I might be making all that up. So, Uh, 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:49.200 the Titanic sank. There was a lot of radio traffic 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:53.280 going on as the disaster breaks out, obviously, so even 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:57.480 though this uh in Newfoundland they heard very early on 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:00.840 and picked up this distress call, they couldn't really get 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:03.959 it out because everything was all clogged up. Yeah, there 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:06.399 are a lot of ham radio operators screwing things up 0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:09.119 at the time. That's right, and that's what prompted the 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:12.199 Radio Act of nineteen twelve UM, which was sort of 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:14.720 the beginnings of the foundation of what would eventually become 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:18.880 the Fairness doctrine, because what it did was it established 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:23.280 spectrum allocation and the FCC basically said, hey, listen, uh, 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:25.440 if you want to broadcast, you can't just broadcast. You 0:20:25.480 --> 0:20:29.000 gotta come to us and get a license. Yeah. Initially 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:31.840 it was the Commerce Department that was that was um 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:37.560 issuing licenses, and then came the Radio Act of that 0:20:37.600 --> 0:20:41.560 formed the Radio Commission, and they started handling licenses. But 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:44.919 not only did they start saying, Okay, you're a broadcaster, 0:20:45.080 --> 0:20:48.040 here's your license, this is the frequency that you can 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:51.879 um broadcast on. Prior to that that was around in 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:54.040 the Radio Act, that was the Commerce Department that did that, 0:20:54.280 --> 0:20:56.520 but there was no way to police it. And so 0:20:56.600 --> 0:21:00.360 if you were say NBC Radio and the there were 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:04.120 a bunch of people broadcasting on your frequency at seven pm, 0:21:04.160 --> 0:21:07.080 you just switched to Yeah, well no, you just switched 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:10.480 to a different frequency and start broadcasting, and so there's 0:21:10.520 --> 0:21:12.840 no way to police it. Well, with the Radio Act 0:21:12.840 --> 0:21:16.320 of and the creation is Radio Commission, there was a 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:18.560 way to police it, because you could have your license 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:22.280 revoked and if you kept broadcasting, guys would come to 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:26.120 your house and kidnap your family. Yeah. But the really 0:21:26.160 --> 0:21:29.560 important thing, and this is how it uh not your family. 0:21:30.200 --> 0:21:33.320 The really important thing was that established what we talked 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:36.720 about before, which is spectrum scarcity. There's only so much 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:39.760 space now if everyone has to apply for a license, 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:43.840 who wants to broadcast? UM, It's just it's it was 0:21:44.000 --> 0:21:47.000 very key in in the setup and then, like I said, 0:21:47.040 --> 0:21:50.160 eventual downfall of the fairness doctrine. Yeah, because it says 0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:53.480 this like, Okay, here's the full here's the full spectrum 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:57.639 the radio spectrum that we can broadcast on UM, and 0:21:57.680 --> 0:21:59.960 we're going to carve it up and each person gets 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:03.600 a specific frequency to broadcast on. That's that means that 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:06.840 there's a finite number of frequencies. So there's a finite 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:11.160 number of licenses, which means that not everybody can have 0:22:11.800 --> 0:22:16.639 a a license to broadcast. Which means that that the 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:19.480 people who do have that license to broadcast have a 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:23.480 very important privilege afforded to them. And because it's a 0:22:23.480 --> 0:22:26.640 privilege because the government has insinuated itself and said we're 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:29.960 doling out these privileges. We've decided we the government have 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:36.200 decided that that you have a responsibility to present fair 0:22:36.280 --> 0:22:41.399 and balanced reporting to the government to the public, including 0:22:41.480 --> 0:22:44.439 basically all sides of an issue, like you have a 0:22:44.480 --> 0:22:49.320 responsibility that supersedes your right to free speech as a broadcaster. 0:22:49.880 --> 0:22:54.119 That was That's what Spectrum scarcity created, right. Uh, this 0:22:55.440 --> 0:22:59.160 radio act Um. While it did establish that, it kind 0:22:59.160 --> 0:23:03.440 of made some errors basically and how they set it up. 0:23:03.680 --> 0:23:05.720 There are a lot of misspellings. Yeah, there are a 0:23:05.760 --> 0:23:09.560 lot of misspellings. But they would say basically to the broadcasters, 0:23:09.640 --> 0:23:13.320 you have to air content in support of quote, public convenience, 0:23:13.359 --> 0:23:16.720 interest or necessity end quote. But they didn't really define 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:18.840 what that was, which, by by the way I looked 0:23:18.880 --> 0:23:21.120 at up, I was like, what does public convenience mean? 0:23:21.640 --> 0:23:24.520 Apparently the UK it means a public toilet and that's 0:23:24.560 --> 0:23:26.919 the only definition I could ever find for it. So 0:23:27.040 --> 0:23:32.240 somebody just made that up. The air content about public 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:36.480 toilets actually like that apart from naked gun it's just 0:23:36.560 --> 0:23:40.479 nothing but the sounds of people peeing. Um. But this 0:23:40.520 --> 0:23:42.920 is a big problem because if something isn't clearly defined, 0:23:42.960 --> 0:23:46.920 then it can't be Uh, it can't be enforced, right, 0:23:47.040 --> 0:23:50.680 you know. So in they knew that this was a problem. 0:23:51.119 --> 0:23:54.360 This was how many years later, like seven years later, 0:23:55.080 --> 0:23:57.240 and they said, you know what, we need to issue 0:23:57.320 --> 0:24:00.439 another act because we're the federal government. And so the 0:24:00.480 --> 0:24:04.840 Federal Communications Act replaced the Radio Act, the FEC was born, 0:24:05.040 --> 0:24:09.280 replaced the Radio Commission, and the f SEC said, all right, 0:24:09.320 --> 0:24:11.760 the first thing we gotta do is define what this 0:24:11.800 --> 0:24:14.400 public interest thing is all about, right, because not only 0:24:14.480 --> 0:24:17.159 does it make it difficult to enforce, it makes it 0:24:17.200 --> 0:24:20.159 difficult to follow. So like, even if you're a broadcasting 0:24:20.240 --> 0:24:22.239 you're like, I totally agree with this. I do have 0:24:22.480 --> 0:24:26.840 a right and responsibility. Uh, what's this public public convenience thing? Again? 0:24:26.840 --> 0:24:28.600