RIP Fairness Doctine

As promised in June, the FCC has officially killed the Fairness Doctrine:

The FCC gave the coup de grace to the fairness doctrine Monday as the commission axed more than 80 media industry rules.

Earlier this summer FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski agreed to erase the post WWII-era rule, but the action Monday puts the last nail into the coffin for the regulation that sought to ensure discussion over the airwaves of controversial issues did not exclude any particular point of view. A broadcaster that violated the rule risked losing its license.

While the commission voted in 1987 to do away with the rule — a legacy to a time when broadcasting was a much more dominant voice than it is today — the language implementing it was never removed. The move Monday, once published in the federal register, effectively erases the rule.

Monday's move is part of the commission's response to a White House executive order directing a "government-wide review of regulations already on the books" designed to eliminate unnecessary regulations.

Unnecessary regulations LOL FOREVER.

Wanna hear something funny? Many, many times during the Bush administration, I wrote about how great it would be if that long national nightmare, which so glaringly highlighted the inherent problems with media deregulation and the failure to enforce the Fairness Doctrine, was succeeded by a Democratic presidency during which the president would advocate for reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine.

Instead, the Fairness Doctrine has been relegated out of existence, no less while rightwing media mogul Rupert Murdoch is under investigation for criminally unethical journalism.

Awesome.

St. Ronnie would be so very proud of you, President Obama.