Editing Fairness doctrine (section)

==Use as a political weapon==
The fairness doctrine has been used by various administrations to harass political opponents on the radio. [[Bill Ruder]], Assistant Secretary of Commerce in the Kennedy administration, acknowledged that "Our massive strategy [in the early 1960s] was to use the Fairness Doctrine to challenge and harass right-wing broadcasters and hope that the challenges would be so costly to them that they would be inhibited and decide it was too expensive to continue."<ref>Friendly (1976, p. 39).</ref> Former Kennedy FCC staffer Martin Firestone wrote a memo to the [[Democratic National Committee]] on strategies to combat small rural radio stations unfriendly to Democrats:

<blockquote>The right-wingers operate on a strictly cash basis and it is for this reason that they are carried by so many small stations. Were our efforts to be continued on a year-round basis, we would find that many of these stations would consider the broadcasts of these programs bothersome and burdensome (especially if they are ultimately required to give us free time) and would start dropping the programs from their broadcast schedule.<ref>Friendly (1976, p. 42).</ref></blockquote>

Democratic Party operatives were deeply involved in the Red Lion case since the start of the litigation. Wayne Phillips, a [[Democratic National Committee]] staffer described the aftermath of the ruling, explaining that "Even more important than the free radio time was the effectiveness of this operation in inhibiting the political activity of these right-wing broadcasts".<ref>Friendly (1976, p. 41).</ref>

The use of the fairness doctrine by the National Council for Civic Responsibility (NCCR) was to force right-wing radio stations to air rebuttals against the opinions expressed on their radio stations.<ref>Friendly (1976, esp. pp. 10, 39-40).</ref>