Republicans Move To Ban The Fairness Doctrine Legislation
By CSPANJunkie Thursday Jan 08, 2009 7:00pmJanuary 07, 2009 C-SPAN
Republican leaders talked about the introduction of the Broadcaster Freedom Act on the floor of the U.S. House. The Broadcaster Freedom Act would prevent the Federal Communications Commission from implementing the Fairness Doctrine without an act of Congress.
Dave N: It's getting comical, really, how many right-wingers are working themselves up into a fine froth over this. I just got a frantic e-mail from Ann Coulter touting a new "Human Events" report on this dread threat to conservative airwave hogging values. (Image here.)
Funny thing: There really isn't anyone seriously advocating the reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine, but it's the boogeyman du jour. Matt Yglesias has more. Ron Chusid at Liberal Values has a roundup.
Well, I say let 'em expend all their energy on an issue that isn't one.
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Since when did Republicans let reality get in their way?
their own reality by repetition. We are only seeing the tip of the iceberg.
I know it's un-American but I would love to ban Limpballs, Shamitty, Savage Wiener etc. from the airwaves. If you can't guarantee that what your putting out there is factual then fuck you. Kind of like the clean water act for the brain.
And I think merely banning them is not enough.
..the truth requirement component would accomplish banishment all by itself. It's built in.
It is about allowing some on the air.
It is equal time for different views.
The reason returds hate it so much is they know the bullshit they are trying to sell won't sell if you allow the opposing view to be heard.
It really is that their views are so far a field from the true American views that if they allow anyone to point out how ignorant their views are they will be done in 60 seconds!
But why ISN'T it an issue? I wish it were in effect again, or something similar.
$$$$$
I think that it is vital, as a safegaurd for continuing existence as a free deomcracy, that the Fairness Doctrine be revived. Getting rid of it is one of the principal reasons our entire news media, with few token exceptions, is composed entirely of reichwing propagandists who seem dedicated to the idea of bringing about a totalitarian and fascist police state. I'll go even further and say that not only does the FCC need to be thoroughly reformed and fumigated, but the DoJ needs to get into the act, too.
There are 5 corporations that control all of TV and cable news, plus many radio and print outlets. Add to that another very small handful of corporations that control pretty much the entire spectrum of radio band width (this includes the neocons who now control NPR). Add to that an extremely small handful of telecommunications corporations that control access to cable. We are subject to the uniformly malign intentions of less than 20 CEO's, who control all access to the over-arching majority of access to mass-consumed information. The problem, however, is that they do not work to inform, they work only to manipulate.
These companies form a coordinated cartel that exerts de facto monopoly powers, and that cartel has sorely abused the American people through their able use of their top-down-directed propaganda empire. By exploiting their monopolistic powers, they have been able to abet a despot, they have interferred with and corrupted our political process, they intentionally mis- or disinform, they have dictated what is or isn't allowed as national political debate and they entirely dictate - within their realm of influence - what will or will not be the acceptable national dialog. Witness, for example, how they thoroughly manipulated the pre-primary debate process, how they abetted the criminal Bush regime through his every crime and how they are now gearing up to wage what will doubtlessly be a relentless campaign of disinformation and defamation against the Obama administration. More, we can all be assured that they will be intimately involved with the inevitable upcoming efforts to destroy net neutrality, thereby destroying the sole remnent of a free press in this country. They can only do this because they possess the monopoly powers of a highly unified cartel, wherin all members have the discipline to uniformly read from the same page. The monopoly powers of that cartel are intentionally deployed and wielded in disservice to the idea of liberal and free democracy, in intentional disservice to the American Public and in sole service of those would appoint themselves the elite rulers of our nation. For these reasons, the Department of Justice should be conducting anit-trust actions against these companies. The intent and goal of such an action should be the forced return to a diverse media industry: there must be massive divestiture of assets. The old and strict limits on media ownership must be restored.
No free nation can remain free or truly democratic, absent a vigorously free and independent press. Every free nation that has fallen into tyranny and despotism first suffered a loss of their press and media, through corruption and conversion into propaganda instruments of the despots to whom their countries fell. A tyrannical state cannot exist or thrive in the presence of a legitimately functioning fourth estate that executes its duties to society with integrity and earnest good will. That function is almost extinct in our society, and if that state of affairs is allowed to continue, we are going to be in for a long, dark night.
The move to ban a reintroduction of Fairness Doctrine regulations is nothing less than an attempt to seriously undermine an institution that is vital to our continuing existence as a free and democratic nation. The instigators of this effort know damn well how dangerous a legitimately functioning press is to their goals and aspirations. To dismiss this move, or worse - offer incipient ridicule of it, as mere rightwingnuttery derangement is to miss the point and miss the seriousness of the trouble we are already in. One would have to be functionally braindead not to recognize that the would-be despots are deadly serious or that they are relentless. What, after all, were the last 8(+) year about?
Issues like the Fairness Doctrine and strict ownership limits need to be front and center of the national dialog, and by default - because no other options currently exist, it is going to have to be the blogosphere that steps up to the plate to lead that discussion - while it still can.
Hurrah and bingo!
Thanks.
"But why ISN'T it an issue?" That is, IMO, one of the most important questions we are facing as a nation.
we would not be in this bush disaster if reagan had not killed the fairness doctrine 20 years ago.
considering the time we've lost dealing honestly with global warming, progressives ignoring talk radio may be the biggest political blunder in history.
i would add that the talk radio monopoly is a more pressing problem. TV and print, as corporatized as they are, still have to at least pretend, within acceptable framing, to put on two sides and it is often talk radio that decides what is and what isn't acceptable when the limbaughs and hannitys can threaten for weeks without contest and put enormous coordinated pressure on management to enable and give cover to republican owners. for firing dan rather for instance.
while print and TV are most anti-democratic in what they omit, only the talk radio monopoly, through coordinated UNCONTESTED repetition, can create and establish its own reality of myths, distortions, lies, and exaggerations that the rest of the lazy celebrity talking heads as well as GOP and blue dog (limbaugh) democratic politicians can count on by the end of the day or week.
by ignoring the talk radio monopoly democrats have been playing politics without a front line. rove and co have been beating them with an invisible political 2x4. they've been feeling it but have been turning the dial and analyzing their beatings as if the GOP has mass public appeal instead of the biggest bullhorn and uncontested soapbox in the country, mostly in large expanses of those red states with a disproportionate number of senators and a lot of people who's only choice for politics may be an AM radio while they're working or driving. and don't give me any crap about waiting around for satellite radios in every car- that will be the next GOP legislation.
there are three choices that i see for progressives (yeah yeah plenty of others).
1) congress can pass some new kind of Fairness Doctrine or very fast acting demonopolization,
2) progressives and unions can boycott and picket their local RW radio stations and their local sponsors until they stop filling the community airwaves with lies about their candidates and causes and really support them.
3) or they ignore talk radio, continue to cede it to the GOP, and continue to work twice as hard and pass twice as many concessions to get even the most watered down progressive legislation past more talk radio enabled filibustering and blue dog (limbaugh) democratic bullshit.
Yeah, unchallenged (and unchallengable), pervasive repetition is a pretty powerful weapon that they use against us. The only way propaganda can work is if those targeted for manipulation trust the propagandists or when the manipulation is designed to validate impulses that would otherwise be held in shame by an informed public. When no countering voice can be heard, the lies that are subjected to constant repetition eventually become incorporated into basic personal and cultural paradigms: the lie is accepted as truth, and if the propagandists are especially skilled, that acceptance happens without conscious knowledge. These radio, broadcast and cable and print propagandist are some of the most dangerous and antisocial elements in our society.
Add to your list of solutions, a liberal/progressive listener and viewer supported national network of radio and television that is dedicated to doing legitimate journalism.
Man, there are some good comments on this thread. It's a pisser that I have to go to work.
Later.
to get through a guy like limbaugh can wallow in a bathtub of it for three hours straight.
maybe that would help- require screeners to back off so guys like limbaugh would have to take real calls.
another thing progressives could do is to post a searchable regular daily roundup of transcripts of the main national and local talkers so that the patterns can be documented better. there wouldn't be a better source to go to find out what the GOP was going to do later in the day or week and maybe the rest of the media would be shamed from feeding out of the same trough of prechewed talking pints.
to get through a guy like limbaugh can wallow in a bathtub of it for three hours straight.
maybe that would help- require screeners to back off so guys like limbaugh would have to take real calls.
another thing progressives could do is to post a searchable regular daily roundup of transcripts of the main national and local talkers so that the patterns can be documented better. there wouldn't be a better source to go to find out what the GOP was going to do later in the day or week and maybe the rest of the media would be shamed from feeding out of the same trough of prechewed talking points.
The droping of the FCC regulations on ownership and the operating rules have a great deal to do with it.
None of what is going on today was even legal 30 years ago. 30 years ago if you wanted a TV or radio station you had to show that a certain precentage of your broadcast time was dedicated to public service.
Today the only public service these assholes do is charging huge prices for their crappy product!
Since the Reagan 80's when they deregulated the public "airwaves" these corporatists have bought up the broadcasting power to monopolize it. That's where a propaganda machine gets it's wave-power. Then, whatever they want said "over and over and over" they can and it's usually not right. What they are trying to do is cinch-up a prohibition on free, public airwave. That's why they are attacking the issue: when everybody else thinks it's a non-issue.
Beware of these scoundrels, this is a real point...for the future. It would be in the best interest of the American people to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. Afterall, "fairness"(an American idea) is what the broadcasting is about. Even though the Europeans believe "fairness" is a quaint delusion that shouldn't be involved in any corporate decisions.
Just, WATCH OUT! This is a plan headed for corruption.
PS: Most agree with Capt.Bat Guano: Flush should be made to be honest or declare himself a comedic liar.
ignoring the talk radio monopoly continues to be the biggest political blunder in decades. GOP radio monopoly hinders all progressive efforts. no other medium allows anywhere near the same level of coordinated UNCONTESTED repetition 24/7/365 to catapult the propaganda. it makes democracy and bipartisanship impossible. we wouldn't be in this bush disaster if reagan hadn't killed the FD 20 years ago. the only consolation is that it drove the GOP over a cliff. unfortunately it took the rest of us with it.
the least populated states are often the states most dominated by the talk radio monopoly with its coordinated uncontested repetition, often to people just trying to get some current events or news while driving or working, and as someone else said "If you take 41 senators from the 21 smallest states, you can block any legislation with a group of multi-millionaires elected by 11.2 percent of the American public.". no other single tool has been more successful for the GOP for keeping GOP senators in line and pushing the center to the right. until americans start calling complaining boycotting and picketing their local stations and their local sponsors when they lie about and threaten their candidates and causes most of this this crap will continue into obamas term. look now at the blogo scandal, dems and the UAW and fannie mae causing the depression, while vote election theft witnesses who go down in planes and vice presidents admit to outing CIA agents get a pass. the corp media might pass on most of it but its mostly talk radio that chooses which molehills get turned into stinking mountains .
a single local blowhard reading GOP and chamber of commerce talking points can undo the work of thousands of citizens volunteering a few hours and dollars here and there. it is the most powerful single- minded easily manipulated political constituency in the US and has an audience the size of the crowd that voted for obama. its 1000 stations are the power centers of the GOP. it determines what is and what isn't acceptable in the rest of the media. it enables flat earthers in GOP politics and it enables/requires the tradmedia to entertain flat earthers in their forums. it turns dems into blue dogs (limbaugh dems).
don't know if a new FD is the way to go but something must be done. and oh yeah, the FD did NOT require equal time- just a chance at rebuttal for partisan political speech. limbaugh and the other national blowhards don't even take real calls and cannot be criticized except when someone fools the screener.
Yeah. What you said!
Ban the Fairness Doctrine before we all run out of fresh underwear to change into!
ROFLMFAO! These guys are about as deep as applesauce on a plate.
Well, I say let 'em expend all their energy on an issue that isn't one.
are you kidding? you think they'll stop there?
the biggest problem is media ownership and legislation tagged "Broadcaster Freedom Act" doesn't sound like the solution to the problem.
the dems better not let them run with this... just sayin'...
you canNOT give the pugs any kind of inch.
Any time a piece of legislation is titled with something straight out of Orwell's 1984, there's undoubtedly a secret agenda being fulfilled. If it were named aptly and descriptively, public opinion would never go for it.
I don't think the "Corporate Media Monopoly Act" has quite the same ring to it.
but the "PREVENT Corporate Media Monopoly Act" would help...
this really is an important issue... reagan's and clinton's erosion of the principles and purposes of the 'fourth estate' has been, I think, the downfall of our civilization...
the biginning of it, anyway...
...on this at Liberal Values, George McGovern is shilling for Rick Berman at Employeefreedom.org, anything for a buck I guess
http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=5798#comment-...
Rick Berman
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Be....
After all the fearmongering these right wing assholes have spread the last 8 years to everyone in this country, a little fear coming back at them is sweet karmic justice. A fair media is vital to democracy, what we have now is corporate media which does not report the whole truth about what is happening in this country or the world. Misinforming Mass Media. MMM.
of the re-instatement of the Fairness Doctrine... and HE is one of the fear-mongers who would suffer MOST if it were re-made into the law of the land.
He's using FEDERAL AIRWAVES to broadcast his vile caustic HYPER-PARTISAN LIES AND HALF-TRUTHS. There SHOULD be Some reasonable OVER-SIGHT on the way he manipulates the truth to sway his marginalized super-conservative super-partizan audience. FORCE him onto commercial satelite-distribution of his SPEW. Make his listeners PAY FOR HIS MORONIC MESSAGE.
...he's using OUR airwaves. And....I don't want him to be able to use my portion of those airwaves any longer.
SHOULD make an effort to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. It is about being "fair" with American airwaves, after all. And it would keep the Repug galloping around in circles squealing and frothing at the lips.
Interesting how many Repigs actually do look like Pigs. Accident? I don't think so. Where is Circe when you need her?
Republicanism = Fascism
There are only a handful of companies that own all the airwaves anyway. Why wouldn't they just stagger their programming so that when a liberal is broadcasting, their sister network features Rush, and vice versa?
. . . rightwing straw-man.
The librul-media myth is the ultimate rightwing tinfoil-hat theory.
xxx
to force a breakup of the media conglomerates?
since the change in all the laws regarding tv, radio and newspaper ownership, the amount of local programming has decreased significantly, as well as opportunities for those to be heard on the airwaves
there are very few am or fm stations that provide live local programming, and this includes their news
with a breakup, this would cause stations to be forced to program to their local population
it is beyond me how a station like ksfo in san francisco succeeds with only far right talkers....the only way it can, is that they are programmed with mostly syndicated shows, that they do not have to directly pay for
so forget the fairness doctrine, break up the media monopolies
It would, just like it would be to break up the banks like mentioned in the NYT editorial.
we just make lying illegal. That would really turn things upside-down!
If there's one thing this country needs even more than the Fairness Doctrine, it would be a new spirit of fearlessness among congressional Democrats. What the hell are you people afraid of, anyway? Did you not get the hint from two crushing victories for candidates MORE LIBERAL than the assholes who've been ruining this country?
Stop being afraid of Republicans. They are nothing more than corrupt, incompetent assholes that are losing traction with the American people, despite their overwhelming domination of obsolete media markets. Start believing in the power of the internet, where the liberal message is finally getting through.
We just don't have time anymore for political cowardice.
I wonder how much of the ills in our country are born not out of fear but rather out of complicity, the appearance of fear being just a convenient cover that is used as Teh Excuse.
Maude and the corporate party Republicans know that there is no threat to peance and freance in Amerikka greater than fairness.
They are public airways. If the "news" is opinion we haven't really given our informed consent for them to govern; this is the only way Repugs can stay in office (and some Dims), obfuscate the truth.
Forget the economy, this is the most important issue facing us today, just behind gay marriage!
I'm tired of all this talk about the economy. I want to hear more about gay marriage and the fairness doctrine! And Terry Schiavo! Dammit!
it enables their filibusters. limbaugh is the balls of the GOP and talk radio is its backbone. they rely completely on it to enable their reps bullshit. we wouldn't be in this bush disaster if we still had a Fairness Doctrine.
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Of course it's not limiting the free exchange of speech when only one talking point is allowed to gain traction amongst any one political ideology... YES?
These Fascists aren't protecting the First Amendment, they're attempting to hijack it and keep it for themselves. The fairness doctrine made it mandatory that all sides of an issue got equal play. Currently, the Fascist air time has been dominated by the Fascists and Christofascists and now, they're fighting to keep it for themselves.
WHY DO REPUBLICANS HATE THE AMERICAN DREAM?
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Of course it's a free exchange of ideas and values when your ideas and values only agree with mine. That's fair... YES?
Republicans seem to think so.
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Amendment I
Republicans don't want fairness.
They should be worried about ala carte cable. How are they going to spread their propaganda when Fox has its cable revenue cut 80%. Bill O'Reilly won't be able to afford a decent loofa.
The Bushie wingnuts are so terrified of real fairness they're pissing themselves. They're absolutely dependent on low information, bamboozlement, spin and propaganda (but, good heavens, don't use the word "lies").
They can't survive without all of the tricks needed to con people. They're utterly addicted to their own Kool Aid.
Time for them to go cold turkey. Send those power junkies to rehab.
The result has been this mess on the airwaves that has turned the broadcast medium into a one-sided propaganda machine. Instead of liberals snickering about reactionaries' cluelessness, it would behoove us to take the hint, and make their nightmare a reality. Who knows...we might even get a voice at the table again.
The repugs do not like that word: Fairness. these assholes want things there way and when they can't get it they piss and mone, bitch, snivel and what ever they do. I see now the repugs are saying they had nothing to do with starting the war with Iraq. these people make me wants to PUKE! we live in a F*#k up country where there is people who think the last 8 years of repug shit was any thing but a big fucking over of the American people, and they think bush was nothing more than fucktard. this is his way of fucking over America for kicking out his dady after 4 years of fuckups.
Hey Kucinich is pushing for the fairness doctrine, you must have forgot. The media Monopoly is bull, even other countrys having a invested interest in our American media is bull too. This is only a part of the Republican deregulation that needs re-regulated. Businesses of all kinds have been allowed to consolidate, ruining fairness and the free market. I do remember C&L reporting about the giant media companys buying up all the smaller companys. We can't let this happen remember? It happened. Isn't it easier today to start your own "low" power radio broadcast? Can't local progressive gather together to implement a grass routes 50 state wide broadcast company?
Olberman, you want to donate? Amy Goodman? JOHN! I saw the old 93.5 building on Trindle rd. in Mechanicsburg for sale a while back .............
Absolutely right! I've wondered about the demographix of the markets in which reichwing "talk radio" thrives. I would like to know the average IQ and the average education of those Rushites. I mean, have you ever really "listened" to Rush Limbaugh (real name "Rashid Limphardhi," Persian)?
the whole republican party is made up of fools liars and idiots.
Do anything say anything to get what they want.
America would be a much better place with about 400 less republicans in office.
These ignorant lying bastards should be shot on sight!
Yes fairness is a word republicans hate!
They want to win no matter what they have to do or say to win.
Fuck a bunch of fairness.
I say fuck a bunch of stupid ignorant republican fools!
republican= insanity!!!
The whole Fairness Doctrine is a smokescreen. It's about media ownership, but what the right is making it about is their voices.
Rush is on so many stations because of who owns those stations. If there were more local ownership, we would see a variety of voices and more parity in the media.
It's about money and the control of the flow of information.
It should be re-instated. If these assholes can't win an argument with competitive ideas being presented, then their ideas aren't worth shit, n'est-ce pas? Watch these pinheads actually have to debate the pablum they present.
N'est-ce pas? Only an elitist snob who hates America and freedom would use a French expression. We don't need the Fairness Doctrine. What we need is the Freedom Doctrine.
(This is a joke for those who couldn't tell.)
This is nothing NEW! When the Dems wanted to give power to the courts to refiguer homes loans so PEOPLE could stay in them, Who piched a bitch. Repugs and the banks. any time there is something for the people, the real TAX payers, the repugs are there to make sure we are F*#Ked. Money for walstreet, and the rich, take all you want and we don't even want to know where you are spending it. Hell go on a vacation,trear yourself to things millions of tax payers will never get a chance to do. What a bunch of shitbags.
I hope PE Obams keeps his friends close and his enemies closer. the repugs will do every thing they can to cause trouble in his term.
I think his BIG mistake was to bring representatives of his enemies into his cabinet, dreaming of a post-partisan government. That is NOT the way to "keep them close"; that's the way to completely wreck your agenda. You graciously confer with your enemies occasionally to pick through the ranting to determine if something of value is being overlooked that will benefit all Americans. You don't put them in charge of anything, though.
I know he believes he can sell his program to those rightwing leaners he's brought on board and then count on THEM to bring the rest along with them, but the rightwingers are too determined to regain power to cooperate in that venture.
I anticipate disruption and resistance by some of his cabinet members OR capitulation by Obama from the beginning, as he capitulated on the telecom immunity vote. I REALLY hope I'm wrong. If not, he will have wasted all his good-will capital and have an ineffective government, with Congressional Democrats leading him around by the nose, continuing to vote for corporate (and their own) interests.
According to current right wing wisdom the middle class pays zero taxes.
Where was all this concern when the FCC was running Howard stern off the air? If Stern can be fined and forced to go with satellite radio because of dirty jokes and interviews with porn stars, why should Rush Lardass get away with supporting Abu Ghraib? Or accusing Michael J. Fox of faking his case of Parkinson's?
The FCC needs to understand that nothing is more obscene than the malign lies of propagandists.
Obama seriously needs to reform that cat house and restore it to integrity.
The difference between newpapers and radio? Radio uses a limited resource, available bandwidth. I know it would suck for radio stations if they had to serve the public interest, for using public assets, maybe we could create a tax system, where you can pay more for being an ass and not serving the public, or you pay the current low rate that allows radio stations to generate 30-40% profit if you serve the public (ie. provide some local shows, not just rebroadcasting the national shows).
Yuo'd think the right would be all in favor of the fairness doctrine since they're always screaming about the "liberal media." If there really was media bias against conservatives wouldn't the fairness doctrine work to their advantage?
It's interesting that conservative proponents of talk radio, in this case, a few republican congressional members, are so concerned about the 1st amendment of the Constitution, yet they loathe diversity of opinion and oppose any kind of regulation that might require all media outlets, since there is a finite number of such outlets, to offer views that contrast the type of opinion that they espouse. Since the fairness doctrine has more or less been revoked, the airwaves have abounded in polarized and partisan and "religious" programming. This in turn, has helped to create the type of polarized political society that has taken a choke hold of America. There is no balance. There is no presentation of a variety of viewpoints. Free speech on talk radio usually is restricted to one tone, and it's either radically conservative, or, less frequently, radically liberal. It's a sad state of affairs when there is no dialogue, when people listening to talk radio are given no opportunity to consider differing opinions, different sets of facts or considerations. It's all part of a dumbing of America. And that is really sad. Of course, people are not forced to listen to talk radio. But when they do listen to these very limited points of view and don't seek out other sources of information, their thinking skills are diminished. The congressional proponents of preemptively banning the Fairness Doctrine and all other similar legislation is just as offensive to me as an American as the Fairness Doctrine is to them as owners or representatives of radio talk show programs that want only to express one very specific opinion and/or point of view. They would have Americans believe that they are championing the highly held value of the 1st amendment right to free speech and Americans in general, when, in reality, what they are doing is in its own way attempting to limit free speech whenever it's a question of presenting a variety of viewpoints and opinion. We live in a country right now where differing viewpoints cannot seem to coexist civilly. And these congressman are attempting to fortify that stricture. This country has so many extremely important issues and policies to correct that trying to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine at this time, while it has not even come up as a topic of discussion for legislation at this time, may be like putting fight-trained pit bulls into a ring and may not ever work again until this country undergoes a fundamental shift in how it approaches carrying on both political and civil dialogues which represent a variety of viewpoints. But, for these congressman to claim to be representative of Americans in general and of the 1st amendment, is a lie. When Americans are exposed to a variety of viewpoints in their search for truth or to try to make sense of the politics of this country, they are better informed and better off. The Fairness Doctrine attempts to do that but is a clumsy piece of legislation given the polarized nature of dialogue and debate in this country. We should, it seems to me, as a country, seek to give Americans access to all points of view and not restrict them in their ability to get at information which is what a ban on the Fairness Doctrine and similar legislation would do. Americans have a right to information that will help them to better understand the world in its complexity. To stiffle that would be Un-American. If there can be legislation that would help ensure a free exchange of ideas and a variety of opinion, we would all be better off. To ban that is a restriction on free speech.
While fair and balanced news would be nice....I think true and fact-checked sounds like a better alternative. Didn't the FCC used to fine people for lieing on the news? The only honest new now is The Daily Show, and that's freakin sad!
How about requiring a statement that declares "this program contains opinion and not news" for all but news programs. News programs could declare that they are NEWS and use the word in their title and description, provided they meet the minimum requirements for accuracy and content.
This way people will know where to find NEWS should they desire it.
This could be done as simply as they required drug companies to declare side affects, and entertainment media to declare potentially shocking portrails.
that requires a monopoly so that it is uncontested with truth. limbaugh and the rest call them selves entertainers (instead of propagandists), so do their station's managers and owners. they're lying or in denial.
I admit it's pretty fimsy, but those drug commercials have turned me off prescription drugs...
How about:
"warning: The following program contains depictions, inacuracies and opinions that some veiwers may find offensive."
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