Back in the Walter Cronkite Era, there was a thing called 'The Fairness Doctrine."
When broadcasting started with radio, there were a limited number of usable bands. The government assigned stations and laid down rules, including one that said that if you gave an editorial you had to let the other side respond. Another said that no one company could own more than two stations in a town [one AM and one FM]
After the Watergate scandal unseated Nixon, the Right realized that an independent press was a liability. As soon as Reagan got in he started trashing the old media rules and by 1996 the GOP Congress could finally destroy the old system.
You might want to watch the movie “Network.” As it aged it went from cutting edge satire to staid docudrama
our main issue today is with 24/7 cable news and social media, neither of which were ever governed by the fairness doctrine.
That’s kind of like say because Reagan cut taxes on the rich back in the 1980s we can’t change those laws.
We’re never going back to the Cronkite Era but the FCC still does regulate cable TV.
The tax code is not codified in the constitution - free speech and free press is. the only reason the fairness doctrine was ever constitutional was because the public airwaves were a limited resource. That limitation does not exist on cable TV or the internet, so you’re going to have a huge uphill battle through the courts to make a Neo-fairness-doctrine for cable or social media constitutional.
Further, social media crosses international borders, so it’s a lot more difficult to wrangle and regulate as opposed to networks firmly operating only inside the bounds of the continental US.
I’m mad as hell 😡
I want to know more!
[sorry, wrong meme]
You’re doing your part!
Though there were years of buildup destroying education, social media was the endpoint. Now any dumbass with an opinion can reach a huge audience. It used to take a lot more effort to spread stupidity. I don’t think we’ll ever recover.
Is it a gullibility crisis or a plague of morons?
it’s a plague of propaganda. i don’t think people are significantly different than they were 20+ years ago, but today we have to deal with a fire hose of nonsense on social media and 24 hour news.
I once convinced someone that Italy’s flag has a pizza on it.
Let’s not forget the internet has an outsized proportion of kids on it. When you’re a kid, conspiracy theories sound more fun and less dumb.
Bit different when Elon Musk does it, he should know better.
elon does know better, he just doesn’t give a shit.
I also wouldn’t put it past kids to be the ones inventing and amplifying them while simultaneously not believing any of it.
trollface.jpg
Bit different when Elon Musk does it, he should know better.
Unfortunately, conspiracy theories attract voters. As long as these theories benefit the people in power, they’ll keep spewing them even when they know they are wrong.
William Clifford might call it a problem of credulity and he might even have an idea about one of it’s root causes.
