Ronald Reagan on the so-called "Fairness
Doctrine":
“The framers of the First
Amendment, confident that public debate would be freer and healthier without
the kind of interference represented by the ‘fairness doctrine,’ chose to
forbid such regulations in the clearest terms: ‘Congress shall make no
law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.’... History has
shown that the dangers of an overly timid or biased press cannot be averted
through bureaucratic regulation, but only through the freedom and
competition that the First Amendment sought to guarantee. [The ‘fairness
doctrine’] simply cannot be reconciled with the freedom of speech and the
press secured by our Constitution. It is, in my judgment, unconstitutional.
Well-intentioned as [the ‘fairness doctrine’] may be, it would be
inconsistent with the First Amendment and with the American tradition of
independent journalism.”