How Media Fairness Regulation Once Killed Conservative Talk Radio. Is the Internet Next? by Institute for Policy Innovation

Many people today are calling for a new “Fairness Doctrine” for social media platforms, elimination of Section 230 liability protections, and other regulations intended to ensure political neutrality and fairness in the way these platforms moderate content. Setting aside the fact that such speech regulation is almost certainly unconstitutional, the history of media neutrality regulations suggests that the losers will likely be conservatives, not progressives.

In his new book, The Radio Right: How a Band of Broadcasters Took on the Federal Government and Built the Modern Conservative Movement, author and historian Paul Matzko retells the forgotten story of conservative talk radio in the 1950s and 1960s—before Rush Limbaugh—and how the Kennedy administration used federal regulations, including the Fairness Doctrine, to intimidate conservative talk radio out of existence to bolster its reelection. Only when the Reagan administration eliminated the Fairness Doctrine was it possible for conservative talk radio to blossom, including national and local talk shows, as well as cable news outlets that carry opinion programming.

Please join the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) on June 11 at 1:00pm CENTRAL as we host our next Zoom policy discussion with historian and author Paul Matzko.