The Repealed Law That Broke The American Media:
The repeal of the Fairness Doctrine and the rise of profit-driven media polarization in America
An FCC policy, known as the ‘Fairness Doctrine’ once required broadcasters to present balanced viewpoints on controversial issues, but its 1987 repeal paved the way for the rise of ideological programming and figures like Rush Limbaugh and networks such as Fox News and MSNBC to capitalize on this deregulation to prioritize audience engagement through outrage and identity politics. Linked video goes into detail
View original on lemmy.world
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To be... hmmm.. . fair?, even if this law wasn't repealled, it might have not been enough to avoid the described state of the media. I base my assumption on the media situation in France. (home bittersweet home)
Our media fairness / neutrality rules are still in effect, but the most prominent TV stations, radio stations, and journals are quite engaged in the same shitshow.
The media regulations agencies lack the means and institutional support to enforce the rules. A few billionaires possess most of the main privately owned channels, and have a strong influence on state owned media too. They use this power to further a nationalist, imperialist, supremacist, classist, racist, and sexist agenda. (Non exhaustive list. Doesn't it remind y'all of at least one other country?) The main progressive media are also very biaised, and deliberately try to counter the dominant channels. But at least those have a higher tendency to source and fact check their publication.
Most media (especially "right"-or-"center"-wing) have found way to circumvent fairness rules with lies and, how do you call it? sock puppets? Their "leftist" opponents mostly operate on media types that allow more partiality. (paper journals, internet streams, videos, and podcasts)
The authoritarian billionaires, one especially, even weaponized some parliamentary investigation process as a kind of S.L.A.P.P. against state-owned media.
Let's just say the mediatic atmosphere is tense and toxic in France too, despite existing fairness rules.
very good analysis.. I agree with the core takeaway that regulation isn't the remedy when that are so many private interests (billionaires) who put their interests first even if they be antithetical to the wellbeing of the nation..
It does leave you with a certain sense of dread that this circus is just going to get more bizzare and add more fuel to the fire when it seems that the only two options are letting things continue as are or limiting privately owned media which would then just enpower the government, which is also in most countires politcally captured by billionaires...
I'm interested to see how these media manipulation trends evolve into the 'podcast era' like they did when most people transitioned from broadcast to cable..
The situation in France is hectic.. I think a lot of these 'new age journalists' use 'investigations' because they think it adds a thin veil of legitimacy to their propaganda (candace owens)