Trump Raises Possibility of Restoring Fairness Doctrine on TV

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump, who has pushed for broad rollbacks of regulations on the environment, markets, banking and other areas, mused on Twitter about restoring a media rule killed under a president he cites as one of his heroes, Ronald Reagan.

“Late Night hosts are dealing with the Democrats for their very ‘unfunny' & repetitive material, always anti-Trump! Should we get Equal Time?” he wrote to his 40 million Twitter followers Saturday morning. “More and more people are suggesting that Republicans (and me) should be given Equal Time on T.V. when you look at the one-sided coverage?”

U.S. television broadcasters for three decades were required to give equal amounts of time to candidates seeking public office, though there were numerous exemptions including for scheduled newscasts and live events. The policy was repealed by the Federal Communications Commission in 1987 under Reagan as part of his deregulatory push.

Trump didn't specify in his tweets which shows or broadcasts are “dealing with the Democrats,” nor did he mention whether he would be in favor of requiring conservative media outlets to give balance to opposing perspectives.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bernard Kohn in Washington at bkohn2@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bernard Kohn at bkohn2@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann