Fairness Doctrine Panic hits FCC, spreads through blogosphere

[Commentary] That naughty Federal Communications Commissioner Robert M. McDowell has got all the bloggers upset this week, thanks to his impromptu comments about the future of broadcast media regulation. McDowell told the Business and Media Institute on Wednesday that if the upcoming Presidential election "goes one way, we could see a re-imposition of the Fairness Doctrine." "The stupidest thing I've heard this week," wrote Rob Topolski of Free Press. "The Fairness Doctrine, if applied on the Internet, would violate Network Neutrality principles!" he declared. "The network has never cared about the political positions of the senders of packets, and it would violate the neutral behavior of the network if it had to start caring." DSL Reports quickly chimed in via its headline: FCC's McDowell Tries To Scare The Children. "Perhaps more useful than the Fairness Doctrine would be a law requiring that FCC Commissioners be technologists and visionaries instead of partisan lobbyists?" Karl Bode asked rhetorically. A "new low" was what Josh Silver called McDowell's remarks in a Huffington Post commentary. "Americans of all political stripes are tired of politicians saying the grass is blue and the sky is green." Clearly, we're having a Fairness Doctrine Panic (FDP), as I call them. It's not the first, and it won't be the last.