McDowell Links Net Neutrality, Fairness Doctrine, and the Election

Following a speech to bloggers at the conservative Heritage Foundation, in which he discussed Internet policy and the Federal Communications Commission's recent ruling against Comcast, Commissioner Robert McDowell warned that an effort to reimpose the defunct Fairness Doctrine could sync up with efforts to regulate network management, resulting in "government dictating content policy" on the Web. "This [presidential] election, if it goes one way, we could see a reimposition of the Fairness Doctrine," Commissioner McDowell told BMI, the economic arm of the conservative Media Research Center. "I think it'll be intertwined into the [Network Neutrality] debate ... because there are a few isolated conservatives who might be cherry-picked in a Net Neutrality effort, and I think the fear is that somehow, large corporations will censor their content, their points of view. I think the bigger concern for them should be if you have government dictating content policy -- which, by the way, would have a big First Amendment problem -- then whoever's in charge of government is going to determine what is 'fair' under a so-called Fairness Doctrine." Visit B&C and see video of the statement.