Yesterday, Al Gore delivered a compelling
speech that speaks to a core issues regarding our current national dillema. The issue was nothing less than saving the democracy that we all cherish by restoring restoring equal access to America's "Marketplace of Ideas", which Gore convincingly argues has been demonstrably changed by the advent of television:
Television first overtook newsprint to become the dominant source of information in America in 1963.
I would also note that the beginnings of the current Conservative Movement can be traced back to 1964, one year following this pivotal moment in the way Americans get their information. This is what scientists would call a direct correlation. The "alternate reality" that Gore speaks of began in the 1960s, until today it has become powerful enough and pervasive enough to challenge reality, truth, science, and rationality, generally.
Although it began there, this "alternate universe" did not begin to hold real sway in our discourse until a key moment in 1987, as Gore points out:
As early as the 1920s, when the predecessor of television, radio, first debuted in the United States, there was immediate apprehension about its potential impact on democracy. One early American student of the medium wrote that if control of radio were concentrated in the hands of a few, "no nation can be free." As a result of these fears, safeguards were enacted in the U.S. -- including the Public Interest Standard, the Equal Time Provision, and the Fairness Doctrine - though a half century later, in 1987, they were effectively repealed. And then immediately afterwards, Rush Limbaugh and other hate-mongers began to fill the airwaves.
Clearly, passage of these rules into law was not a strong enough deterent, as a later administration simply repealed them, and thereby endangered our democracy and our democratic discourse.
Therefore, when re-instituted, they should be done so pursuant to a mandate established by a "Free Media Amendment" (or some other appropriate name) to the Constitution that will insure the right of all Americans to contribute to and participate in the public dialog.
If enacted, the Free Media Amendment should:
enshrine the Public Interest Standard, the Equal Time Provision, and the Fairness Doctrine into the constitution (preventing some easy repeal in the future)
unequivocally assert public ownership of the airwaves
guarantee all Americans' right to access and contribute to the public media forum in their local, state, and national communities.
mandate a separation of news and entertainment
institute an express constitutional ban on all state and national government propaganda
require local ownership of news outlets, with content to be chosen and controlled locally.
ban media monopolies and oligopolies
empower congress to enforce these articles by appropriate legislation.
Don't think it will pass? I refer you back to the honorable Mr. Gore:
In fact, one of the few things that Red state and Blue state America agree on is that they don't trust the news media anymore.
So, this isn't just our issue alone. But, it is one to which we can champion a real solution... and get the Right to join us in support. And, if anything has a chance of getting passed, it is on issues in which the Left and Right can agree, for those in the mushy middle will generally follow along.
If we really wish to restore our democracy, we must first restore the public forum in which our democratic discourse takes place and on which our democracy is based. As Gore points out, this will not just have an impact on the media, but also on political campaigns and the use of public office that need the media to get their message out.
So, let us take up PRESIDENT Al Gore's charge and lead this nation toward a free-er media environment. No longer should we sit satisfied with having the 27th free-est media in the world. Rather, we must strive for first. Only then can we insure that the radicals now in charge are permanently displaced by the Rule of Reason that Gore and our Founding Fathers championed. And in so doing, we will truly have a chance to save the Republic, rather than simply play defense to an ever-more-bold radical element in our society. Rather than defeat them now and only see them resurge even stronger in another 4 or 8 years, we can institute reforms that will allow fringe positions to be marginalized rather than implemented as divisive public policy. And only then will we be able to have the public discourse necessary to save our nation from the mountain of obstacles, from global warming to the national debt, that we now face.