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Saturday, September 9th, 2017

This Sinclair-Tribune merger is a rotten deal for America

Author:     Michael WInship
Source:     Bill Moyers.com
Publication Date:     FRIDAY, SEP 8, 2017 01:00 AM PDT
 Link: This Sinclair-Tribune merger is a rotten deal for America
Stephan:   After the debacle the Republican Party faced during Watergate, when Reagan became president the party got rid of the Fairness Doctrine. But it wasn't just Republicans. When Bill Clinton, a Democrat, became president, to serve his corporate masters, he changed the rules that limited how much media a company could own in any market. As a result of those two changes the foundation was laid for the American media of the 21st century. And the trend for the future, as this report outlines, is even worse.

Sinclair Broadcast Group, the owner of the largest chain of television stations in the nation, in Hunt Valley, Maryland.
Credit: William Thomas Cain

Gather around, everyone, and let me tell you a story about rules. And greed and hypocrisy.

Once upon a time in America, there was something called the Fairness Doctrine.

Approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1949, this rule insisted that because the airwaves belong to all of us, every TV and radio broadcast licensee must “devote a reasonable portion of broadcast time to the discussion and consideration of controversial issues of public importance,” and allow “the expression of contrasting viewpoints.”

Translation: When you present points of view from the right on your station, it behooves you to also present views from the left — and others — so that everyone’s opinion gets a fair shake.

Had the Fairness Doctrine remained in place, chances are the explosion of loud-mouthed bigotry on the air and across the internet might have been mitigated in part by a more balanced, countervailing […]

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