Want to fix the presidential primaries? Revive the fairness and equal time doctrines.
'There are many important reforms to our presidential selection process that should be adopted — curbing the corrupting influence of money, ending the electoral college, making voting a constitutional right. But none are so urgently needed as a restoration of the doctrines of equal time and fairness to media coverage of our electoral contests.
There was a time not long ago when fairness and equal time in the coverage of candidates and the conduct of candidate debates was the law of the land. These time-honored doctrines have been abandoned over the past 15 years, and the slide of democracy into the media-entertainment abyss has been fast and furious.
Most Americans who do know about the doctrines focus on how their end paved the way for the rise of conservative media — particularly talk radio. But less acknowledged is the effect of the doctrines’ demise on the nomination contests of our political parties. As a result, the media’s entertainment imperative has displaced the parties’ consensus-building imperative — in both primary and general elections.
Under this imperative, candidates gain traction and greater media attention by alienating as many people as they entertain. (And if they are really good at dividing people, the Russians come into our game and help from afar through social media troll farms.)
Consider the confession of Les Moonves, the former head of CBS. In early 2016, he was asked about the network’s inordinate coverage of Donald Trump during the primaries — a deluge that would continue through Election Day. Recall the uninterrupted start-to-finish coverage of his rallies; recall the disproportionate speaking time he received in debates. Under the old rules, no network would have gotten away with giving so much attention to one candidate. But, as Moonves gushed, “I’ve never seen anything like this, and this is going to be a very good year for us. Sorry. It’s a terrible thing to say. But, bring it on, Donald. Keep going. … It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.”'>>>
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/28/want-fix-presidential-primaries-revive-fairness-equal-time-doctrines/
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for the status quo including the free speech 1st Amendment detailed in the Wiki materials. Reinstating the Fairness Doctrine and Equal Time provision would involve dealing with the FCC and reviewing the Sherman Anti Trust Act in regards to media consolidation, another enormous issue impacting our democracy.
There are also those who insist that these original regulations are irrelevant now in terms of satellite, cable and internet communications which don't utilize the free public airways for broadcasting. Even here some claim that radio is a dying industry due to the internet. Regardless, fair and balanced broadcast media is becoming rarer as the years go by and time is critical.
We also need more media broadcast programming that is ACCESSIBLE and AFFORDABLE in addition to balanced, truthful and non-commercial. Fox and conservative talk radio were costly, lost money in the early years and relied on major donor funding which eventually paid off for corporate supporters. The failure of two progressive news attempts, Air America Radio and Current TV by Al Gore are also cited as reasons that left media 'will never succeed'- a ridiculous, defeatist argument.
The Free Speech TV network does a very good job, as well as PBS, NPR and Democracy Now! but more outlets are needed. We are watching the steady decline of democracy and the dangerous rise of authoritarianism. Between the influential in Los Angeles and wealthy, civic minded Americans someone needs to become involved in developing better media. It's urgent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC_fairness_doctrine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Current_TV
