[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 17926]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         NON-FAIRNESS DOCTRINE

  (Mr. PRICE of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Madam Speaker, freedom is the foundational 
principle of our society. Our founders were champions of this God-given 
right and charged future generations with eternal vigilance to protect 
it.
  Now, a handful of people in Washington want Uncle Sam to start 
telling radio and TV personalities what to talk about, to limit their 
freedom and ours.
  Rather than fight in the marketplace of ideas, they want to bring 
back a 1929 radio regulation rule known as the ``Fairness Doctrine.'' 
Now, don't be fooled. There's nothing fair about it.
  In the early age of broadcasting, when the majority of news and 
information was distributed by one or two outlets, it seemed important 
to promote a competition of viewpoints. That was then.
  A fairness doctrine today tramples upon freedom of speech and freedom 
of the press. It dictates to Americans that in an open, free and 
flooded marketplace of ideas, they need Washington politicians to sort 
it all out.
  Madam Speaker, real freedom means a government that listens to the 
people, not one that dictates to the people who they must listen to.
  Let's keep the Fairness Doctrine off our airwaves and in the history 
books where it belongs.

                          ____________________