Reinstating the Fairness Doctrine. It's demise thanks to Saint Raygun is one of the reasons why our current political situation is so f***** right now.
You do realize that reinstating the fairness doctrine wouldn't actually do much, right?
1. It requires both sides of a controversial political debate to be given equal air time and be put on equal footing. That means if you want a segment where 30 minutes are given to saying climate change is real, you need to give 30 minutes to climate change deniers too. I don't see how this DOESNT lead to more extremist views getting regular air time on TV
2. Is the more important part, but the FCC only has jurisdiction to enforce the fairness doctrine on broadcast (over the air television). They can't regulate the content of paid TV news, such as MSNBC or CNN. Nor can they regulate what broadcasters over the internet say, such as Newsmax or OAN. The fairness doctrine would apply to such an utterly tiny portion of the American media landscape, it's honestly worth considering if it would even be a net positive at that point.
