As reported in industry trade journal Broadcasting & Cable, Media Research Center President Brent Bozell challenged acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps to support an up or down vote of Broadcaster Freedom Act in the House of Representatives, after Copps told a media reform forum that the doctrine was not coming back, that conservative claims that it would were a “phony issue” and comments he that those who connected the fairness doctrine with efforts to boost minority ownership and diversity –like Bozell — were “issue mongering”.

The Broadcaster Freedom Act, passed by the Senate in late February, would bar reimpostition of the doctrine by the FCC.

President Obama has said on many occasions he does not support the doctrine’s return, but conservatives like Bozell are worried that the FCC’s localism proposals, including community boards consulting on what programming broadcasters should air in the public interest, could be a form of ‘fairness doctrine lite.’