I admittedly don't kow much about the Fairness Doctrine, but what I could find on it was interesting.
Apparently it was used by the FCC back in 1969:
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/F/htmlF/fairnessdoct/fairnessdoct.htm wrote:
The FCC fairness policy was given great credence by the 1969 U.S. Supreme Court case of Red Lion Broadcasting Co., Inc. v. FCC. In that case, a station in Pennsylvania, licensed by Red Lion Co., had aired a "Christian Crusade" program wherein an author, Fred J. Cook, was attacked. When Cook requested time to reply in keeping with the fairness doctrine, the station refused. Upon appeal to the FCC, the Commission declared that there was personal attack and the station had failed to meet its obligation. The station appealed and the case wended its way through the courts and eventually to the Supreme Court. The court ruled for the FCC, giving sanction to the fairness doctrine.
The article says that a lot of journalists feel that it is in violation of the first amendment, but the Supreme Court ruled otherwise, and Regan vetoed the legislation to make it into a law.