The Fairness Doctrine was introduced in the United States in 1949 under Harry S. Trumans presidency, not as a law but as a doctine, and lasted until President Reagans presidency in 1987. The Doctrine remained part of general policy until 1967 when provisions of the doctrine were incorporated into FCC regulations. The Fairness Doctrine required broadcast license holders to present issues to the public, deemed by the FCC, to be honest, equitable, and balanced.

Steve Rendall, FAIR's senior analyst, researched and reported the U.S. Supreme Court, upheld the constitutionality of the Fairness Doctrine in Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC, 1969. "A license permits broadcasting, but the licensee has no constitutional right to be the one who holds the license or to monopolize a...frequency to the exclusion of his fellow citizens. There is nothing in the First Amendment which prevents the Government requiring a licensee to share his frequency with others.... It is the right of the viewers and listeners, not the right of the broadcasters, which is paramount." Rendall explaines, basically the Doctrine has two parts: It required broadcasters to devote airtime to discussing controversial matters of public interest, and to air contrasting views regarding those matters. Stations were given wide latitude as to how to provide contrasting views: It could be done through news segments, public affairs shows, or editorials.

In 1949 the FCC's Commissioner: Frieda Barkin Hennock, initiated the Fairness Doctrine. The Museum of Broadcast Communications reports, she was the first woman appointed to the position as Commissioner of the FCC. She served as a Federal Communications Commissioner from 1948 to 1955. and was appointed by President Harry S. Truman. She pushed to secure the reservation of channels for non-commercial television stations, an FCC decision that enabled the development of the system of public broadcasting that exists in the United States today.

"The Fairness Doctrine was a response to a limited amount of mass communications “channels.," The Wide Awakes report, "Not a bad idea at the core, and considering the technical limitations of the electronic media at the time. As far as the concern about “the message,” it wasn’t about how the Government would manage to be fair using Government controlled broadcast outlets, it was about telling commercial business how to do business...Hennock was not surprised when her term as FCC commissioner was not renewed. Many of the positions she had taken were unpopular with powerful broadcasters. She was an outspoken critic of the practices of commercial networks. She criticized violence in television programming and warned about the growth of monopolies in the broadcast industry. She wrote many dissenting opinions questioning FCC actions. But as her assistant Stanley Neustadt told oral historian Jim Robertson, when she took a position on an issue 'she was ultimately–sometimes long after she left the Commission–ultimately shown to be right.' At the end of her term as FCC commissioner, Frieda B. Hennock returned to private life and private law practice." Controversy regarding the Fairness Doctrine is alive and well in the U.S today

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