Charles W. Chook Bryant

So this was the mid to late 70s, and then things really, really started changing in the 1980s because that whole thing about – remember when we said putting a pin in spectrum scarcity?

That was no longer a problem.

By the mid-1980s, there were more than 10,000 radio stations.

1,300 TV stations, about 1,700 newspapers, and the whole sort of drumbeat was like, wait a minute, there's not a problem here anymore with scarcity.

We should be able to do what we want because you told newspapers from the very beginning that their free speech was protected and they could do whatever they want.

Why are we any different?

Yeah, so in 1985, the FCC kind of—

got their gears turning and said, you know what?

We think this is, we want Congress to review this, basically.

We're going to institute a public comment period, even, and

we think we should abandon the personal attack rule and end this case by case thing.

Right.

Yeah, the FCC voted unanimously to just get rid of it.

Yeah, I mean...

You know, depending on who you are— I'm just going to sit back and watch.

I know.

I'm trying to dance around this.

Depending on who you are, you probably have a very strong opinion about the Fairness Doctrine one way or the other.

Right.

Or you may think it was a mixed thing.