![](https://www.schwartzreport.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/GettyImages-51472634-1280x720-300x169.jpg)
Sinclair Broadcast Group, the owner of the largest chain of television stations in the nation, in Hunt Valley, Maryland.
Credit: William Thomas Cain
Gather around, everyone, and let me tell you a story about rules. And greed and hypocrisy.
Once upon a time in America, there was something called the Fairness Doctrine.
Approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1949, this rule insisted that because the airwaves belong to all of us, every TV and radio broadcast licensee must “devote a reasonable portion of broadcast time to the discussion and consideration of controversial issues of public importance,” and allow “the expression of contrasting viewpoints.”
Translation: When you present points of view from the right on your station, it behooves you to also present views from the left — and others — so that everyone’s opinion gets a fair shake.