Bring Back the Fairness Doctrine

January 18, 2007
Bring Back the Fairness Doctrine

Then, in the late 1970's, came deregulation, and the quality-news incentive began to erode. As the
Federal Communications Commission relaxed programming standards, owners no longer routinely wrote off their news budgets in red ink. They found that, by treating news as entertainment, it could be just as profitable. So they began taking calls from those pesky "consultants." And they were won
over by their brassy concepts ("Eyewitness News" et al); by their focus groups, which (surprise!)
preferred young, good-looking newscasters to seasoned, avuncular ones; and, inevitably, by their
ideas on cutting budgets.

Experienced journalists were laid off wholesale; novices willing to work long hours at minimal
salaries took their place. The savings went toward fancier sets and glitzier graphics. Stories
that were less newsworthy but more visually compelling moved higher in newscasts. "If it bleeds it
leads" became the new standard.