Note: See the petition to Bring Back the Fairness Doctrine on the other side of the 'fold'.
Unchecked Lies
It was dizzying to keep up with the amount of unchecked lies being spread by the republican presidential candidates Wednesday night. They just kept coming and none of three 'moderators' (read facilitators) did anything to challenge them or call them out. They must have fact checkers who could have sent them messages over their headsets and if they don't shame on them.
This is corporate news media in modern America.
An Alternet article, "11 Distortions, Misrepresentations and Outright Lies in the GOP Debate" by Zaid Jilani, did an admirable job of hitting the low-lights.
1. Insisting That Hispanics Used to Love Republicans
2. Ridiculously Saying That Iran Threatens The Whole Western World
3. Implying the U.S. Government Funds Abortion
4. Claiming Obama Is Trying to Circumvent the Process to Let In Syrian Refugees
5. Saying We Are Almost the Only Ones With Birthright Citizenship
6. Rubio Telling a Fantastic But False Story About His Grandfather
7. Stating That North Korea Can Hit Us With a Nuclear Weapon
8. Saying, With A Straight Face, That Bush Kept Us Safe
9. Going Back to the Tired “Sanctuary” Arguments About Terrorists
10.Telling People Marijuana Is More Harmful Than Beer
11. Lying About Vaccines
You can read the full details in the article below:
http://www.alternet.org/...
It's a great job with the list but he failed to include Carly Fiorina's horrid fantasy about ripping a brain out of a living baby. You really have to wonder what kind of sick mind would concoct that fantasy to use for her personal gain. Absolutely disgusting.
And here's the kicker, Carly Fiorina is being crowned by the corporate owned media as the winner of the debate.
If we had a responsible news media in this country, one that was held to standards, one whose primary responsibility was to the citizens of United States, this could never have happened.
We Need Standards
What we have is a news media owned by 6 corporations who are only answerable to their owners and whose only responsibility is to bring in ratings. There is a permanent state of scarcity of diversity and representation in television and radio media, that shows no signs of ever going away. The only way to counter this is to make sure the media has a responsibility to the American people and the only way to do that is to have standards in place.
It wasn't always this way. For the first 38 years of radio and televisions media rule the Fairness Doctrine was the law of land. I grew up with it and I can tell the news media was still far from perfect but it was a hell of a lot better than it is today.
The Fairness Doctrine which was implemented in 1949 set sound guidelines for honest, factual, equitable and balanced presentation of broadcast news and editorial. It was upheld as constitutional in Red Lion vs. F.C.C., in 1969 by the Supreme Court of the United States. It also allowed a great deal of freedom for the newscasters to conform with the guidelines so there wouldn't be a chilling effect on their presentation and practices of news/editorial broadcasting. With multiple news outlets now being owned by a virtual oligopoly it is necessary to ensure that all issues are presented in a fair and even light and that opposing views on complex issues have a chance to be represented.
As the Supreme Court ruling confirmed, licenses are granted to news media through the FCC by the American people and are meant to serve them. Time has come for newscasters to be reminded of that responsibility. The Fairness Doctrine would not only provide guidelines to fulfill that responsibility but would have a symbolic effect that inaccurate, biased and/or misleading news and editorial practices were not in the best interest of the American people and that broadcast news and their networks had a responsibility of high journalistic standards to uphold.
In case you're wondering what happened to the Fairness Doctrine, 18 years after it was ruled as constitutional, Ronald Reagan, unilaterally and with no public outcry to do so, did away with it through deregulation, by executive order. Then the Congress passed a law that would have made the Fairness Doctrine law and he vetoed it.
I had thought CNN might have a little more journalistic integrity but they obviously took their cue from the Fox hosted 'Feel Good Event' that tossed applause lines to an extremist crowd's delight with absolutely no substance or even mention of the plight of America's middle-class, crumbling roads, failing schools or record high poverty.
You can read my take on that event here:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Did CNN step up to the plate? No. Not at all. Why should they? There's all those juicy Donald Trump zingers and the incredible list of things the republicans will destroy once they get back in power. Belligerence and sensationalism sells and the republicans have that in spades. And that's just swell.
'Cause that means RATINGS!
Some quick Fairness Doctrine facts:
1. It has been constitutionally upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. Red Lion vs. FCC, 1969.
2 It was the law of land from 1949 until 1987 (38 years).
3. The cited reason for deregulation was the advent of cable television creating multiple news options.
4. It's needed now because all those different cable channels are owned by an oligopoly of about 6 corporations. (No Diversity)
5. Even if there were more news media owners there is a permanent condition of scarcity because an individual citizen can not respond in kind to a television or radio news network.
6. It augments the 1st Amendment. It is not censorship. The Fairness Doctrine is to help guarantee the news is factual and truthful. It also works to assure differing sides of an issue are given equal representation (fairness), so, actually, it is augmenting the 1st Amendment. It is the very opposite of censorship. Censorship occurs in newscasting when newscasters report dishonestly and present only one side of an issue.
7. The wording of the Constitutionally upheld Fairness Doctrine provided plenty of leeway for news networks to comply.
Below is a link to the Fairness Doctrine wiki page for additional reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
'Like' 'Bring Back the Fairness Doctrine' of Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/...
SIGN AND SHARE THE PETITION, " Re-institute the Fairness Doctrine and Require Strict Adherence to Fairness and Accuracy in Broadcast Media"
http://petitions.moveon.org/...
Tom Wheeler, FCC cc President Barack Obama
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street Southwest,
Washington, DC 20536
We request the FCC re-institute the Fairness Doctrine and institute rules that require reporting and commentary be held to the highest journalistic standard of fairness and accuracy in broadcast media. We also request strict adherence to the 'equal time rule' devoid of a requirement for financial remuneration to the broadcasting networks.
The 'Fairness Doctrine' is necessary to encourage accurate, unbiased newscasting, diversity of editorial comment and to identify editorial comment as such as opposed to news. Recent studies have shown an unacceptably large percentage of inaccurate and misleading content in news/editorial broadcasting. Though there are alternative means of getting the news and commentary, none are as powerful as television and radio which are, for all intents and purposes, the sole domain of corporate owned entities. Corporate consolidation of media is having a chilling effect on diversity of opinions represented and the selection of news stories covered. Last but not least, these airwaves belong to the people of the United States and should be the most inclusive in diversity of viewpoints and free of bias in any news coverage.
The Fairness Doctrine was a policy of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), introduced in 1949, that required the holders of broadcast licenses to both present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was, in the Commission's view, honest, equitable and balanced. It was ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court in 1969 and deregulated during the Reagan era, the advent of cable newscasting being the cited reason. Currently there are only six corporations that control almost all of television and radio newscasting. The Fairness Doctrine is necessary to ensure there is diversity and honesty in newscasting and telecast editorials.
Respectfully yours, The Undersigned.
SIGN AND SHARE THE PETITION, " Re-institute the Fairness Doctrine and Require Strict Adherence to Fairness and Accuracy in Broadcast Media"
http://petitions.moveon.org/...