Diller: Repealing the Fairness Doctrine was deeply unfortunate for the public interest
Barry Diller · Barry Diller: Building IAC · Sep 30, 2025 · at 55:50
IAC Chairman Barry Diller discusses the historical impact of media regulation and the broadcast industry's civic responsibilities with host Shane Parrish.
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“The fairness doctrine was a fundamental tenant of broadcasting, which meant that you had to, in any dissemination of anything, you had to present, if there were two sides to an argument, you had to present them fairly. You had to be fair in your presentation, and this was, along with a lot of other regulation, thrown out some time ago, and I think is, ah, very unfortunate for the common wheel, as they say, meaning that that proviso for broadcasters, that and the fact that they still are, but they were licensed, because they were using the public airways belonging to the public, And so you felt a responsibility if you were in that world to do the right thing, and we can define right in all sorts of different ways, but we all know what the mainstream of right is. To a very large degree, that's kind of been tossed, and I think it's just very unfortunate.”
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