A bill to permanently ban the Fairness Doctrine – a dormant FCC rule that says broadcasters are required to grant equal air time to opposing ideologies – probably will not be voted on this year in Congress, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told CNSNews.com. He also suggested that, like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), he will support reactivating the Fairness Doctrine. Hoyer said he is interested in "ensuring the availability of fair and balanced information to the American public."

"There is a real concern about the monopoly of information and the skewering of information that the American public gets," Hoyer stated, according to CNSNews.com. "First is to the monopoly. Obviously, if one group, or a large group, controls information and only allows one perspective to be presented, that’s not good for democracy. That is not good for the American public. That is, of course, what the Fairness Doctrine is directed at, and it can have great merit. But there are obviously complications involved in that as well."

Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), who wrote the Broadcaster’s Freedom Act to permanently ban the Fairness Doctrine, expressed surprise at Hoyer’s statement. Pence said that if Democrats maintain a majority in Congress, there will be a movement to restore the Doctrine.

"With the support of Speaker Pelosi and the majority leader for a return of the archaic legislation that, combined with the support of Senator Durbin, Senator Kerry, and Senator Feinstein, it seems very clear to me that should the next Congress remain in the hands of the Democrats, there will be an effort to restore the content regulation of the so-called Fairness Doctrine to the airwaves of America," he told CNSNews.com.
 
Pence further noted that when he added an amendment to temporarily ban the Fairness Doctrine to an appropriations bill in June 2007, 113 Democrats voted in favor of the amendment. But now that that he has organized a discharge petition that would force his bill to the House floor, not one Democrat signed on. In March, President Bush gave a speech at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville where he spoke out against the Fairness Doctrine.