Reinstate the Fairness Doctrine [View All]

I was too young to remember politics in the 1980s. I was more concerned with Robotech than Reganomics. I've heard here, however, that's where it all started going down hill. That actor who got elected President repealed something called the Fairness Doctrine. It's purpose was the regulate the media, to make sure "fair and balanced" was an actual standard, not a thoroughly abused slogan.

What exactly was it? I know the general concept behind it, but how exactly did enforce fairness?

I ask this because for quite a while, I've been pondering a way to get our broken media to actually work for us again. They have completely disregaurded their responsibility to keep our citizens well informed. Our founding fathers placed the fate of this nation into the hands of it's citizens, giving for the first time in the modern world, the ability to govern themselves. In order for a citizen run government to suceed, it's citizens would have to be well educated, and well informed.

Schools were formed across the country, to ensure that the next generation of citizens would be well educated. Newspapers sprouted up across the nation to ensure it's citizens were well informed. So important was the role of newspapers in this new society, that they were afforded special acknowldgement in the First Amendment, Freedom of the Press.

Freedom of the Press was established to ensure that the media could inform the citizenry of what it's government was up to, so that those citizens could hold their representatives accountable for what was done in their name. Freedom of the Press was established to prevent the government from censoring the news. Censorship would leave it's citizens in the dark, and allow corruption to spread through the halls of power without fear of exposure.

The Rights accorded in the First Amendment are still in place, but the Press no loger has Freedom. Today the press feels the pressure of censorship so heavily, that they feel impotent to offer any real news. It isn't the government exerting this pressure on the press... it's the corporations who now run both the press and the government.

We can't get honest reporting about healthcare because the insurance companies won't allow it. We couldn't get honest reporting about the war in Iraq because the Defense contractors wouldn't allow it. Of course Fox News is another animal all together.