Free and varied broadcast speech should be the goal of Obama's FCC

BARACK Obama should appoint a chairman for the Federal Communications Commission who supports free political speech, a diversity of media voices and an unblocked Internet.

In the first respect, the agency has been good: It has shown no interest in reinstating the so-called Fairness Doctrine. That rule, which was imposed under President Truman and repealed under President Reagan, required that if a station had an editorial in favor of something, that it run another editorial opposing it.

The typical result was blandness — and repeal of the rule led directly to talk radio. Now some Democrats — but not Obama — have said they want to bring back the Fairness Doctrine, presumably to silence the voices that annoy them.

It is a bad motive for a bad idea. Radio and TV stations need to be free to manage their own political content, just as newspapers are. Democracy requires it and the First Amendment demands it.

Democracy has the further requirement that there be many voices. Here, the FCC has fallen down. During the Bush years, the FCC has allowed wealthy interests to buy multiple media outlets in the same market. The Obama team shows signs of being much more concerned about ownership consolidation, as it should be.

Obama's FCC transition team is headed by supporters of net neutrality. That's the idea your Internet provider should not be allowed to bar you from sites it doesn't want you to see. It's a good rule, and the Republican FCC commissioners have opposed it. Obama's FCC should enact it.

The FCC has five members, three of whom can be from the president's party. Of the three Republicans, one will lose a seat in January, giving President Obama the immediate power to fill one seat. The president also has the power to select which of the five shall be the chairman and chief executive.

Obama could appoint one of the two Democrats, Jonathan Adelstein or Michael Copps, as chairman, or give that title to a new appointee. Current Chairman Kevin Martin can stay as a commissioner until 2011, but insiders are betting he'll go — and he should.