ABSTRACT
In Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. Federal Communications Commission, 395 US 367 (1969), the US Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the "fairness doctrine," legislation mandating that broadcasters give free airtime to an individual whose political views on public issues were challenged so that the individual had adequate means to reply to the challenge. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was charged with enforcing the fairness doctrine. The Red Lion Broadcasting Company, which owned the station, refused, and the FCC sued for violation of the fairness doctrine. Reviewing the history of radio broadcasting, the Court stated that the FCC was created to handle the "chaos" of stations fighting for limited bandwidth. The FCC abandoned the fairness doctrine in 1987, although it continued to enforce rules on political editorials and personal attacks such as in Red Lion until 2000.
