Should the next Democratic President restore The Fairness Doctrine?

Should the next Democratic President restore The Fairness Doctrine?

Restoration of this, would force the media to report in a completely unbiased way, force them to actually become fair and balanced. If we had the Fairness Doctrine now, the media wouldn't be permitted to WHORE 24/7 for Junior and the Repukes...they also wouldn't have been permitted to allow the Swift Boat liars to lie for nearly THREE weeks whilst NOT allowing somebody from the Kerry campaign on also, to give the other side of the story. The media also wouldn't have been allowed through the 1990s to join in on the PARTISAN Repuke witch hunt of President Clinton...without some representative of President Clinton's to be allowed to give the other side of the story.

We need to rein in the mediawhoring, we need a mechanism back in place to prevent them from being left to their own devices...unchecked the media proves EVERY day that they are FIRMLY in the Repuke camp...our side CANNOT get ONE break from these mediawhores. They just babble all sorts of Repuke talking points...including rumor and innuendo about ANY Democratic politician and they CONSTANTLY twist ANY Democratic Party policy position in order to make it look as worse as possible. We need to stop this.

The next Democratic President NEEDS to restore The Fairness Doctrine, because IF they don't...then the mediawhores are going to go after him EXACTLY like they went after President Clinton, and they'll hammer away at him for his ENTIRE term/s.

I think that this is a pretty good poll, so I hope ya'll vote in it and if you want to make a comment or two.

For those of you who mightn't be 100% aware of what The Fairness Doctrine was and IS, here's a rundown of it, followed by an article about how we lost it and why we need it BACK:

The Fairness Doctrine, explained:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairness_Doctrine

The Fairness Doctrine: How We Lost It and Why We Need It Back:

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0212-03.htm


:popcorn:

I would like the hear the reason for voting no on this one.

You know, I bet we do have some "No" votes, but I'll be mighty surprised if ANY of them post why they think "No"

then, no? No effect on CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc.

I'd have to check that out.

...so while we may end up with a version of the fairness doctrine, we'll also have legislated authority for the FCC to control cable and satelite content. It's a mixed bag at best.

Get rid of the majority of Repukes and stack it with majority Democrats.

I'm kind of hoping that we won't have a Repuke President for at least twenty years. You know, like after Hoover the Repukes were kept out until 1953.

On Edit: Dammit spelling error.

And as a Sirius Sat Radio owner...not comforting at all.

Because the so-called "great communicator" sucked at debates and unscripted press appearances.

Like somebody else we know...

Ray-Gun get rid of it. I do admit when our side make dumbass mistakes, and boy this was one of them.

Can we also revoke Murdoch's US citizenship while we are at it? He bought that as well. He started many of these problems.

This Corporate Rule and Greed must end!

So, I'll basically just say- you need to go back and do some reading.

and make it apply to cable "news" too


Keith’s Barbeque Central

HELL YES!

oligopolies that tie the news media to giant corporate enterprises.

:rofl:

The problems that will happen of course is that the media landscape now has so many more avenues than the airwaves for people to get content. The Fairness Doctrine was enforced earlier by FCC broadcast licenses which TV stations had to have to broadcast their signals. Either we'd have to erect some "analagous" licenses for cable, satellite, internet, etc. or the broadcast stations would complain that they have a burden that other content doesn't have. It would also be hard to justify putting up rules that would encompass very narrowly focused programs (shopping channels, movie channels, sports channels, etc.) And we have to condition the public to want and demand it in different areas of receiving this content, or they will always try to jump someplace else to "avoid" getting these various points of view.

I think the fairness doctrine and what it gave us before has been missed, compared to what we have now, but we're going to have to really put some thought behind how we can set up some effective, fair, and enforcable rules that fit todays' media landscape. We may also have to be careful at expanding the scope of this doctrine, where some of the fundies might use that "expansion" to also censor other media too the way they do broadcast media now with the FCC. Howard Stern might not be "safe" on satellite radio, if satellite radio is made to obey a new fairness doctrine rule and in the process make it subject to more "indecency" censorship.

But I vote "Hell YES" that we need something like it!

Do need to do SOMETHING, because we just cannot go on like this.

...illustrating the dangers and potential positives of it.

seeing as the media is so 'liberal' :sarcasm: I'm sure the cry baby republicans would be all about restoring the fairness doctrine. Pick up the sword and swing it back at them a sword cuts both ways. If they are going to whine about the 'liberal slant' in the media then they should love and be all about the fairness doctrine being restored.
If not then they damn well better be prepared to Shut up and Give up their big fat lie that the media is liberal. They can not have it both ways oh they will try but they will still be wrong!

:yourock:

Dean ran on the plat form of restoring the Fairness Doctrine during the Iowa cacasus and the DNC, DLC and the corporate media shut Dean down. You know the FAMOUS SCREAM!!!!!

after him.

The MSM red flags went up and Dr. Dean got royally slammed. The scream video got as much air time as the commericals.

Hey...has anyone got 3 votes to spare huh?

Purty please :) I think people need to read the links in my original post and also read some of the fine comments that have been left.

:)

You're one of my favorites too :)

Enough of these cable news morons, the "O" person, Tweetie, Wolfie...paid liars, all of them. Enough of the non stop hate on the radio. I listen to Big Eddie on SIRIUS when I can, Hartmann too. They are not hate mongers. They have a point of veiw, which is balanced on the right by more than enough talkers. The right often is just plain hate.

One of the worst things to happen under Reagan. And Fox would be outta business if it was brought back :evilgrin:

I also think that they should regulate programming that's labeled "news." I don't mean they should regulate the content and say what can and cannot be reported, but when a person watches the "news," it's reasonable to expect the reports to be true and accurate. Any broadcast called "news" should be required to report the facts accurately and completely - no holding back information in order to "spin" a story. If they want to comment and editorialize, that's fine - as long as the content is clearly identified as OPINION!

JMHO :popcorn:

edited for clarity

It would require going through the administrative rulemaking process and following the procedures of the APA to the letter so it wouldn't be vulnerable to a Court challenge.

.. such that it is in effect until proper legislation is passed.

Dean??? You could almost set a watch by it when he said he would and when the media went after him.

I know...I saw how it was abused. It doesn't apply to "Entertainment" programs...only ones designated as "Political". Since the FCC no longer requires stations to report the type of programming they do, there'd be no way to regulate a Fairness doctrine and no teeth to enforce it. That was also the problem then...and why it was eliminated.

The doctrine really only applied to advertising rates for political ads...and it forced radio stations to offer the lowest rates to all candidates. The reason the law was overturned was too many stations felt they were getting screwed by politicians who would buy tons of air time at dirt cheap rates...taking lots of inventory that could have been sold to higher bidders...and the stations HAD to carry these announcements. The only "fairness" is that it forced the station to offer the same rates to all "bona fide" candidates...and trust me, I've seen disputes on that one as well.

If you want to get more Progressive voices on the tube...the power of the dollar is what will speak the loudest. When Progressive radio and TV shows get ratings and become big money to the corporates, we'll have more fairness than we could ever dream of...and then for many here, it still wouldn't be good enough.

Peace...

The Dems wouldn't be irrelevant in national politics today.

The worst part about it is that for all his pandering and media deregualtion, they hounded him mercilessly throughout his presidency.

Talk about a lose/lose situation....

no mo text...

You want the government to muzzle the asshats? You'd be playing right into their hands. This would tell the Limbaughs, O'Reillys, Hannitys, Coulters et al that the left can't compete with them.

I can see the editorial cartoon: Two kids in the back seat of a car, one with a donkey on his shirt, the other with an elephant. The one with the donkey is whining, "Mooooooom, make him stooooop!"

The FCC, however, should extend the licensing criteria that broadcast stations must meet to cable networks, requiring Faux, MSNBC et al to renew their licenses every five years and to solicit public comment on their content during the renewal period. It's past time for this, since technology has rendered ambiguous the term "broadcast."

And in the meantime, we still have such weaponry as economic boycott to counter the asshats. But I'll be damned if I'm going to tell my big brother to go beat up the bullies.

Bush poll numbers went down when AAR caught on.
Next time the neo-facists will make certain that opposing views cannot be on the same OR ANY channel.

We need the fairness as long as there are major networks.

Extend at will, with fairness.

Zzzzzzzzzzzz. I'm done for today!

And it should be enfoced.

"New York minute" for those of you playing along at home. :-)

The demise (dare I say murder?) of the Fairness Doctrine led directly to the rise of hate radio, as well as "hate television" like the horror Mark Hyman perpetrates nightly on over 60 Sinclair stations. And we all know what that led directly to... :puke: :puke: :puke: