Reinstate the fairness doctrine

Under the fairness doctrine, any news organization was required to provide content on political issues from both parties (or if there was a third party, their viewpoint as well). If you are a Gen Xer, you remember the show Point, Counterpoint on PBS. Instead of making a blanket statement or series of statements on a buzzword issue, evidence was required to back your position, and more importantly, all news organizations were required to allow the opposing viewpoint an equal amount of time - hence the word "fairness" - on their news segment. The Fairness Doctrine also required that news media report errors in their reporting, and to provide corrections to anything that was potentially misleading whether in print or on the air.

The Fairness Doctrine was enacted shortly after WWII and it was designed to combat three things. The prevalence of "yellow journalism" where papers would print wild and crazy stories only to incite emotions off of half truths, or frankly just falsehoods with the altruistic goal of simply selling more importantly sell newspapers. These newspapers were printed on cheap paper, that yellowed, which is where we get the term "yellow journalism". The second was to combat the monopoly newly formed television and radio networks had on the news, and their potential to abuse that monopoly to skew information that was provided to the masses to a narrative that the media companies wanted to present to the masses. This law was designed to ensure the media could not use their power to persuade their audience to behave the way they wanted. The third was that in the wake of WWII, we realized the power of news media when we looked at what happened to the German people prior to and during WWII. The Germans were nationalized by Hitler’s media machine that spewed hate, lies and propaganda that allowed the Third Reich to exist and thrive; the people of Germany, because of the propaganda allowed the atrocities of the Third Reich to happen.

We passed the Fairness Doctrine to ensure that the news media in this country would not be able to do the same to our people. We wanted our people to make informed decisions, not decisions based upon emotion, or fear about issues that were insignificant, or easily rebuked.

The Fairness Doctrine was repealed by President Reagan, and the once mundane news networks became exciting. The first household name that benefited from the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine was a man named Rush Limbaugh. Using the removal of this law, he was able to present news, and information in a one-sided and biased format, without providing information about why his viewpoint may be biased, or even completely incorrect. He used this to his advantage and amassed a massive following and a fortune spreading his one-sided viewpoints. Some of his stories were credible, others were completely misleading.

I use Limbaugh only because he was a household name. Both parties benefited from the repeal of this legislation. Likewise, even though Reagan's administration repealed the Fairness Doctrine, it was not party based, and both parties benefited from this law's repeal, as they could use the media to push their own agendas. Think about watching Fox News for a day and then watching MSBNC. They push stories and commentary that is one sided, a lot of which would completely fall apart if they had to present a counterpoint.

The media companies, and this is perhaps the real reason the Fairness Doctrine was repealed wanted this as well. They could sell fear on stories and issues that again sounded very scary when you presented one side, but when the other side was presented, the story would fall flat. They could sensationalize the news, and well, make more money. Reagan’s repeal of the Fairness Doctrine likely had more to do with his former acting career and his Hollywood influence more than anything to do with political parties.

The Fairness Doctrine prevented misinformation from being spread by actual news organizations. It prevented the spread of nationalistic ideology, and more importantly it required that the news media accurately report on stories that they covered, present facts that were verifiable, and provide an opportunity to discuss an alternative viewpoint.
We need to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine to hold our news media accountable. This will stop sensationalizing the news and give the common voter in this country access to honest, reliable information.