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Back in the Cronkite Era, the US government had a ‘Fairness Doctrine’ that granted all opposing views an equal amount of time to rebut an editorial. No one company could own more than two radio stations in a town.
After Watergate the Right saw how dangerous that kind of press was and did everything they could to destroy it.
Ronald Reagan started it, and the GOP Congress finished the job in 1996.
I’m not disagreeing with you, but am genuinely curious how “fairness” was counted. I feel we have a thing right now where one side will present a well reasoned, data driven, argument. And the other side will hastily throw together something based on vibes that mostly doesn’t address the issue at all. But out of a sense of fairness our current media feels like it has to present both as though they’re two equally effective tradeoffs when actually one is empty noise.
So I’d be very curious if this system has a way of preserving true fairness without devolving into false equality in some way. Obviously nothing is perfect, but I’m curious.
You could talk to people who were alive at the time.
I’ve seen tapes of those editorials. Usually the station would be fairly bland in it’s presentation, and the opposition would respond in kind.
imho it was the ‘Right To Life’ movement that broke the old decorum. They could call their foes ‘baby killers’ with impunity.
If you’re interested in the history of politics, look up Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority. He was a preacher who mobilized others on the religious Right to organize. One of their most powerful tactics was to overwhelm the GOP stalwarts on their home turf. If the establishment folks expected 20 people at the monthly meeting, the Moral Majority folks would bring fifty. Pretty soon they had a lot of local sheriffs and county clerks in their pockets; it was a small step to get Congress members elected.
Back in the Cronkite Era, the US government had a ‘Fairness Doctrine’ that granted all opposing views an equal amount of time to rebut an editorial. No one company could own more than two radio stations in a town.
After Watergate the Right saw how dangerous that kind of press was and did everything they could to destroy it.
Ronald Reagan started it, and the GOP Congress finished the job in 1996.
I’m not disagreeing with you, but am genuinely curious how “fairness” was counted. I feel we have a thing right now where one side will present a well reasoned, data driven, argument. And the other side will hastily throw together something based on vibes that mostly doesn’t address the issue at all. But out of a sense of fairness our current media feels like it has to present both as though they’re two equally effective tradeoffs when actually one is empty noise.
So I’d be very curious if this system has a way of preserving true fairness without devolving into false equality in some way. Obviously nothing is perfect, but I’m curious.
You could talk to people who were alive at the time.
I’ve seen tapes of those editorials. Usually the station would be fairly bland in it’s presentation, and the opposition would respond in kind.
imho it was the ‘Right To Life’ movement that broke the old decorum. They could call their foes ‘baby killers’ with impunity.
If you’re interested in the history of politics, look up Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority. He was a preacher who mobilized others on the religious Right to organize. One of their most powerful tactics was to overwhelm the GOP stalwarts on their home turf. If the establishment folks expected 20 people at the monthly meeting, the Moral Majority folks would bring fifty. Pretty soon they had a lot of local sheriffs and county clerks in their pockets; it was a small step to get Congress members elected.