Right-wing media takes over

To the Editor:

A reader asked what happened to the Republican Party, referring to the liberal 1956 Republican platform. I don't have enough space to explain this, but I can explain how the Republican Party took a turn to the far right that began in the 1980s.

Conspiracy theories provide simple answers about complicated issues people don't understand. They were largely spread by fringe conservatives and the radical left during the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s.

I, like Trump's father, attended ultra-conservative John Birch Society meetings where far-fetched conspiracies about a communist takeover of the U.S government abounded. Robert Welch, the group's founder, published a thick book that refers to President Eisenhower as “he and his Communist buddies.”

How movement conservatives took over the Republican Party began with conservative Sen. Robert Taft and his followers in 1950. It grew through the Goldwater 1960s, through the Reagan Revolution years, the Republican Revolution of the 1990s, ending with Trump.

“Recognizing how effective popular media could support their ideas, movement conservatives launched a campaign against the “fairness doctrine.” Under this rule, the government had required broadcast media stations to present information honestly, balancing different points of view. “Under pressure, with Reagan's appointees voting, in 1987 the FCC caved and ended the policy,” said Dr. Heather Cox Richardson, a Republican Party expert.

Released from the constraints of this policy, the media could simply push ideology. Within a year, talk radio had become a national phenomenon, led by Rush Limbaugh. In October 1996, an ideological network became a reality when Rupert Murdoch established the Fox News Channel (FNC).

Facebook and Twitter have not done enough to stop junk news.

Robert Dorroh Sonora