The controversy over Dan Rather's discredited report about Geore W. Bush's National Guard service, Sinclair Broadcasting's effort to air an anti-John Kerry documentary before the election, and the revelation that conservative commentator Armstrong Williams was paid by the Bush administration to promote its controversial No Child Left Behind program have resulted in bipartisan efforts to restore the Fairness Doctrine, Salon magazine observed Tuesday. The Fairness Doctrine had required broadcasters to present both sides of controversial issues but was jettisoned during the deregulation days of the Reagan administration. New York Democratic Congresswoman Louis Slaughter, who introduced the Fairness and Accountability in Media Act, indicated that it has a reasonable chance to be passed. "It's a lot different now since Armstrong Williams," Slaughter told Salon. "The airwaves should be used for public benefit. It's broadcasters' one obligation for condition of license. There's no question they don't operate in the public good." The magazine also pointed to a recent poll by Garin Hart Yang Research indicating that 74 percent of conservatives and 71 percent of Republicans believe that broadcasters should be required to present issues in a balanced way. However, the National Association of Broadcasters is lobbying strenuously to block the revival of the Fairness Doctrine. A spokesman told Salon: "We think it's dangerous for the government to be dictating what's on radio and television programming."