America needs to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine
Upon reading about the career of Rush Limbaugh in his obituary, it occurred to me that if it weren’t for the Reagan administration doing away with the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, Limbaugh’s rise, Fox News as it now exists, and the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol would probably never have occurred.
Formulated by the Federal Communications Commission in 1949, the Fairness Doctrine was a rule, not a statute. It required licensed radio and television broadcasters to present issues of public importance in a fair, honest and balanced way. Though the rule withstood legal challenges, the FCC did away with it. Congress voted to reinstate it as a statute, but President Ronald Reagan vetoed it, and later attempts failed to pass.
It is clear to me that the divisiveness in this country today, which unquestionably led to the events of Jan. 6, is a direct result of Congress’ failure to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. Notwithstanding the internet’s influence, it’s clear that radio and television news and opinion shows, both liberal and conservative, are far more influential in shaping and reinforcing our opinions. If they weren’t, we wouldn’t have three hours of local news on television each day, nor the plethora of radio and television stations devoted entirely to news and opinion. As a gauge of their power and influence, Mediaite, a liberal news and opinion site, projected that Fox, CNN, and MSNBC alone last year would earn $2.8 billion in advertising revenue.
Since radio and television news networks are not required to present the issues in a fair and balanced manner, they freely pander to their perceived audiences, thus perpetuating the divisions in the country. While reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine would not in itself end this divisiveness, it would go a long way to helping the millions of Americans who get their news from only one source to see that there are more sides to an issue than only one. If President Joe Biden is serious about bringing this nation together, which is necessary to preserve our democracy, reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine should be a major part of his agenda.