Americans agree that democracy requires freedom of speech. But a large minority also thinks it’s acceptable to bar certain subjects or speakers from public debate.
It just means that it cannot be illegal at the federal level to say what you want.
Which is how we end up with a multi-billion dollar propaganda network spewing conservative lies and coordinating with a political party and calling itself “news.”
We had the Fairness Doctrine up until 1987 when, guess who, Ronald Reagan killed it.
The Fairness Doctrine wasn’t anything close to what I’d call a comprehensive solution to this problem, but it was about the last time that journalists were held to any sort of legal standard. After it was repealed you can pretty much say whatever you want on your news network unless you get sued for libel by an individual, and even that isn’t actually a crime, it’s a class 2 misdemeanor. Just write the affected party a paycheck and do it to someone else tomorrow.
I wonder if some sort of “truth in labeling” law could curb what gets referred to as news? Like, say what you want, but unless you can prove it you’re not allowed to call it news. Would that help to prevent the “they shouldn’t have taken me seriously” defense?
Which is how we end up with a multi-billion dollar propaganda network spewing conservative lies and coordinating with a political party and calling itself “news.”
Clearly some work is needed.
We had the Fairness Doctrine up until 1987 when, guess who, Ronald Reagan killed it.
The Fairness Doctrine wasn’t anything close to what I’d call a comprehensive solution to this problem, but it was about the last time that journalists were held to any sort of legal standard. After it was repealed you can pretty much say whatever you want on your news network unless you get sued for libel by an individual, and even that isn’t actually a crime, it’s a class 2 misdemeanor. Just write the affected party a paycheck and do it to someone else tomorrow.
I wonder if some sort of “truth in labeling” law could curb what gets referred to as news? Like, say what you want, but unless you can prove it you’re not allowed to call it news. Would that help to prevent the “they shouldn’t have taken me seriously” defense?