# The Secret History of Right-Wing Radio **URL:** **By** Paul Matzko **Published:** June 11, 2020 --- Paul Matzko on why the Fairness Doctrine was a terrible idea for radio in the 1960s and would be an even worse idea for the internet today. A generation before the rise of talk radio and hosts like Rush Limbaugh, there was another wave of right-wing radio. But the reason why few remember them is that they were the target of a hugely successful government censorship campaign implemented by President John F. Kennedy using IRS audits and the FCC’s “Fairness Doctrine.” But as our host, Paul Matzko—whose book on the subject comes out next week—this isn’t just a question of history. Today, there is a growing, bi-partisan push for government regulation of the internet that resembles the way the State regulated radio in the 1960s and which could just as easily be hijacked in order to advance partisan interests. ## Further Reading: [The Radio Right: How a Band of Broadcasters Took on the Federal Government and Built the Modern Conservative Movement](https://www.amazon.com/Radio-Right-Broadcasters-Government-Conservative-ebook/dp/B085YF29L1/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8), written by Paul Matzko [Social Media Regulation in the Public Interest: Some Lessons from History](https://knightcolumbia.org/content/social-media-regulation-in-the-public-interest-some-lessons-from-history), written by John Samples \& Paul Matzko ## Related Content: [The Fairness Doctrine Was Terrible for Broadcasting and It Would Be Terrible for the Internet](https://www.libertarianism.org/building-tomorrow/fairness-doctrine-was-terrible-broadcasting-it-would-be-terrible-internet), written by Paul Matzko [Talking Talk Radio](https://www.libertarianism.org/podcasts/building-tomorrow/talking-talk-radio-with-brian-rosenwald), Building Tomorrow Podcast [The Radio Right](https://www.libertarianism.org/podcasts/free-thoughts/the-radio-right), Free Thought Podcast