An Unfair Doctrine

RUSH LIMBAUGH remembers the days when the Fairness Doctrine ruled the world of radio. There was a moment in 1972, he recalls, when as a young disc jockey at WIXZ, an AM station in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, he criticized coverage of the Democratic response to Richard Nixon’s State of the Union address. The State of the Union is a constitutionally mandated report, Limbaugh told listeners, but there’s nothing in the Constitution about any opposition-party response. So why were the networks covering itasifit were equal to the president’s speech?

It was a reasonable question, something one might hear on dozens of programs today. But it wasn’t something you could say on the air in 1972. “I got a scathing phone call on the hotline during the commercial break,” Limbaugh recalls, referring to the direct phone line from station management to the broadcast studio. “And then I got a follow-up memo. They said these types of things, if they are on this radio station, will appear in editorials, written and recorded by management.” The station’s executives, worried about running afoul of the Fairness Doctrine, laid down the law: Mere on-air personalities weren’t supposed to discuss issues of importance. “I had to button my lip about it,” Limbaugh says.

About the Author

Byron York

Byron York is a former White House correspondent for National Review.

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RUSH LIMBAUGH remembers the days when the Fairness Doctrine ruled the world of radio. There was a moment in 1972, he recalls, when as a young disc jockey at WIXZ, an AM station in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, he criticized coverage of the Democratic response to Richard Nixon’s State of the Union address. The State of the Union is a constitutionally mandated report, Limbaugh told listeners, but there’s nothing in the Constitution about any opposition-party response. So why were the networks covering itasifit were equal to the president’s speech?

It was a reasonable question, something one might hear on dozens of programs today. But it wasn’t something you could say on the air in 1972. “I got a scathing phone call on the hotline during the commercial break,” Limbaugh recalls, referring to the direct phone line from station management to the broadcast studio. “And then I got a follow-up memo. They said these types of things, if they are on this radio station, will appear in editorials, written and recorded by management.” The station’s executives, worried about running afoul of the Fairness Doctrine, laid down the law: Mere on-air personalities weren’t supposed to discuss issues of importance. “I had to button my lip about it,” Limbaugh says.