The Fairness Doctrine won’t solve our problems — but it can foster needed debate - The Washington Post

The long-departed Fairness Doctrine has returned — at least in the minds of many who love or hate it. Arguably the most famous — and most maligned and misunderstood — media policy ever enacted in the United States, its long, strange history is generally not well known. Yet it holds important implications for growing concerns about disinformation, ownership and control of our news and information systems, the rights of audiences and the future of our democracy. What would later be called the Fairness Doctrine originated in 1949 at the tail end of a media reform movement whose initial goal — going back to the 1930s — was to carve out a noncommercial sector on the nation’s airwaves. Having lost that battle, New Deal policymakers and activists tried to break up and rein in media monopolies with public interest regulations to curb the worst excesses — from nonstop advertising to a lack of public affairs programming — of a profit-driven, oligopolistic broadcast system. Although many proponen

The long-departed Fairness Doctrine has returned — at least in the minds of many who love or hate it. Arguably the most famous — and most maligned and misunderstood — media policy ever enacted in the United States, its long, strange history is generally not well known. Yet it holds important implications for growing concerns about disinformation, ownership and control of our news and information systems, the rights of audiences and the future of our democracy. What would later be called the Fairness Doctrine originated in 1949 at the tail end of a media reform movement whose initial goal — goi