What is ‘Localism’?
The new plan for government control of television news and perhaps Internet news is labeled “Localism.” It is now pending before the Federal Communications Commission. Like the FCC’s old Fairness Doctrine that was revoked in 1987 by the FCC itself for suppressing news and chilling speech, the new Localism, Balance and Diversity Doctrine would enable the government in practice to suppress opposing points of view, reduce diversity and chill speech.
An FCC-sponsored Future of Media Study has recommended that the Localism Doctrine proceeding be ended as ill advised. The new doctrine would impose unnecessary and heavy burdens on television station news and be enforced by threats of license termination from both the FCC and a local control board at each station. The Chairman of the FCC refused. The present Chief of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has long recommended that the government regulate news content broadcast by stations to advance the incumbent government’s political and social objectives.
Under the proposed plan, news broadcast by television stations would have to satisfy government criteria for ‘localism’ in production and news coverage – as well as government criteria for balance and viewpoint diversity. Five FCC commissioners of a central government agency in Washington D.C. would review local news. The majority vote of three commissioners appointed by the President from his political party would make a final determination of news acceptability, overriding the news judgments of thousands of independent, local TV reporters and editors and threatening the loss of the license to broadcast for non-compliance.
In addition, a local board would be appointed for each television station to monitor its programming, including news, and recommend against license renewal if board members concluded the station did not comply with the new FCC policy. Much of the new rule has not been made public including, for example, who would appoint the members of the local boards.
Requiring journalists to comply with a central government agency’s policy on how to report the news and what the news should be means those journalists would no longer be free and independent of government. If the broadcast press is not free and independent, it cannot act as a watchdog for the public, which is its constitutional role.
