We need to bring back the fairness doctrine and if you are characterizing yourself as “news” you are registered as such and held accountable.
Replies
You seem to think that the FD did something it did not do. The FD applied only to editorial content. Not to news reporting. The FD required that broadcast tv & radio licencees allocate some air time to discussion of issues of public interest and, in so doing, offer differing points of view.
aug 30, 2025, 3:52 pm • 4 0 • view
It never prohibited lies nor did it require truthfulness. And there is no such thing as registration in the context of FCC licenses. www.fcc.gov/document/edi...
aug 30, 2025, 3:52 pm • 3 0 • view
Cool, so you want Trump to be in charge of who gets registered as news. Good to know.
aug 31, 2025, 9:50 pm • 0 0 • view
That is not what the Fairness Doctrine did nor could it without violating the First Amendment.
aug 30, 2025, 3:01 pm • 6 0 • view
The Fairness Doctrine did not apply to cable, only over-the-air networks.
aug 30, 2025, 5:31 pm • 3 0 • view
The fairness doctrine wouldn’t apply to Fox News anyway. The fairness doctrine was for broadcast tv and radio
aug 30, 2025, 6:10 pm • 4 0 • view
🎯
aug 30, 2025, 3:01 pm • 1 0 • view
Fairness Doctrine is never coming back, ever. Would never pass anything but a very liberal SCOTUS.
aug 30, 2025, 5:40 pm • 1 0 • view
Even a very liberal SCOTUS would strike it down.
aug 30, 2025, 7:08 pm • 0 0 • view
So you want insane faacist Republicans fo be legally entitled to tv time?
aug 30, 2025, 4:40 pm • 2 0 • view
This 💯
aug 30, 2025, 5:22 pm • 2 0 • view
Yes. The start of it all with the rise of opinionated “news”.. 👿
aug 30, 2025, 5:01 pm • 3 0 • view
Absolutly+
aug 30, 2025, 2:52 pm • 74 2 • view
I support the goal but you won’t get there by resurrecting policy crafted in the 40s and abolished 80s. We deserve, and should demand, legislation appropriate to our times.
aug 30, 2025, 3:37 pm • 124 7 • view
Exactly. Gotta be adaptive, insightful
aug 30, 2025, 6:49 pm • 1 0 • view
Here’s my crude kernel of an idea FWIW: You know how tobacco companies fought & fought but eventually had to accede to warning labels covering a third of their packaging? If a carrier (term per 47 USC) is adjudicated to have knowingly & persistently propagated falsehood OR settled a suit to (1/2)
aug 30, 2025, 5:20 pm • 42 4 • view
avoid such an adjudication, they must run a public service alert (think of those tests of the Emergency Broadcast System) every 15 minutes informing their audience of this occurrence of persistent, deliberate disinformation. (2/2)
aug 30, 2025, 5:20 pm • 66 5 • view
Compelled speech also violates 1A.
aug 30, 2025, 11:18 pm • 2 0 • view
Pass a new law. Citizen Redistricting commissions must be used to redistrict for all Federal House seats. Barring that, increase the size of the House of Representatives to 1700 members and ensure that the number of people / representative ratio remains the same well into the future.
aug 30, 2025, 8:40 pm • 31 0 • view
Unlike sane federal democracies, the laws for everything involved with congressional elections are up to the states. Reinstating the original population per seat is completely possible though, it was 30k so that would mean 11,333 representatives, give or take. 😊
aug 30, 2025, 9:20 pm • 14 0 • view
Generally you are right but if you limit it to federal elections you might be able to do it
aug 30, 2025, 9:39 pm • 1 0 • view
It's also about what you can get past SCOTUS. They're already gutting the voting rights act.
aug 30, 2025, 10:21 pm • 2 0 • view
Not sue that more politicians is the answer.
aug 30, 2025, 10:01 pm • 10 0 • view
It's not *not* the answer. Lot harder to gerrymander elections with that many fewer voters per seat.
aug 30, 2025, 10:21 pm • 10 0 • view
Tax the rich Fund the IRS
aug 31, 2025, 12:04 am • 5 0 • view
Politicians aren't the problem, crooked and unaccountable politicians are the problem 🧵 Gerrymandering incentivises each candidate to be more extreme than the last because the primary is all that matters when a general is non-competitive Unlimited money (Cit. Un.) made it legal to buy elections
aug 31, 2025, 6:51 am • 1 0 • view
The revolving door & lack of regulation on lobbying means a seat in Congress can be parlayed into a highly lucrative job/title/position after by simply providing access Capping the # of Representatives at 435 means that as populations increase and become more diverse people are guaranteed LESS
aug 31, 2025, 6:51 am • 0 0 • view
representation/access to leaders, however the Senate & Electoral Collegw are the bigger problems. WY has 1 Senator/587,000 people while CA has 1/20,000,000 and TX has 1/15,600,000 which is as absurd as losing the popular vote but winning the Presidency The lack of rules on individual stock trades
aug 31, 2025, 6:51 am • 0 0 • view
Better yet, get rid of the electoral college!
aug 30, 2025, 10:49 pm • 2 0 • view
That one is a much harder sell as it requires a constitutional amendment but fixing Congress is a much easier sell
aug 31, 2025, 3:27 am • 1 0 • view
Find a protest near you. #LaborDayProtests #ShowUp #HandmadeSigns https://www.mobilize.us/mayday/map/
aug 31, 2025, 8:35 am • 1 0 • view
Agreed. I actually didn’t know this had been torched… pretty sad.
aug 30, 2025, 5:24 pm • 1 0 • view
Dick Cheney still has his.
aug 30, 2025, 8:36 pm • 2 0 • view
I came here to say the same!
aug 30, 2025, 5:20 pm • 1 0 • view
Yes, but it should go beyond the airwaves
aug 30, 2025, 5:24 pm • 1 0 • view
You should have to show an announcement like psa stating this channel is only for entertainment not to educate.
aug 31, 2025, 12:05 am • 2 0 • view
Immediately.
aug 30, 2025, 6:10 pm • 1 0 • view
And if I hear the Fairness Doctrine can only apply to network channels, well then fuck that. It should apply to ALL media.
aug 30, 2025, 3:35 pm • 9 0 • view
Have you read the First Amendment?
aug 30, 2025, 3:46 pm • 1 0 • view
Yes! All media news - network, cable, streamers, newspapers, podcasts, newsletters — facts and journalism. Opinions need to be labeled as such but with fact checking. Separate church and state. Tax megachurches. Corporate taxes increased to cover safety net. No tax dollars for private schools.
aug 30, 2025, 10:15 pm • 7 1 • view
Except, you dumb fucking shits, it never did what you think it did.
aug 31, 2025, 9:51 pm • 0 0 • view
🎯
aug 30, 2025, 10:20 pm • 4 0 • view
...and anyone who identifies as an "influencer."
aug 30, 2025, 5:25 pm • 0 0 • view
We need an Honesty in the News doctrine.
aug 30, 2025, 3:33 pm • 1 0 • view
That only ever applied to broadcast stations. Not cable. Cable isn't regulated the way broadcast TV and radio are. I find it odd that nobody here has proposed regulating AM broadcast stations, perhaps by requiring them to have more local news content (not syndicated right wing blowhards).
aug 30, 2025, 3:18 pm • 13 1 • view
Break up monopolies in news.
aug 30, 2025, 4:39 pm • 2 0 • view
You can put the screws to the AM talk radio stations without violating content neutrality. For example, oppose mandating AM radio receivers in cars.
aug 30, 2025, 3:19 pm • 1 0 • view
How is regulating content not violating content neutrality? Since AM radio has proven to be more reliable in emergency situations, what is your solution for that should AM no longer be mandated in cars?
aug 30, 2025, 3:22 pm • 1 0 • view
It's less odious than directly targeting something on ideological grounds. Also this is the year 2025. Also, if anyone is going to go driving in the middle of nowhere, they can bring their own radio. A mandate just means it isn't included by default.
aug 30, 2025, 3:24 pm • 1 0 • view
How is mandating “you must have more local coverage because you spend more time than James likes on politics” not attacking something on ideological grounds? And people have to pack a radio and batteries if they want access to local emergency services such as potential road closures in the winter?
aug 30, 2025, 3:45 pm • 2 0 • view
How would it be? Broadcast licenses are issued "in the public interest." Also, the weather alerts you are so concerned about are the sort of local content that I am proposing. Why should auto makers be required to install a radio to receive content that might be useless?
aug 30, 2025, 3:50 pm • 0 0 • view
How is providing the content the audience wants not operating in the public interest? And you have clearly never driven through highly rural areas with signs telling you to tune into a specific AM station for road and weather conditions.
aug 30, 2025, 4:02 pm • 1 0 • view
1. I have. And my experience is the range is very short. 2. Ending a mandate does not mean people in those areas won't have radios.
aug 30, 2025, 4:08 pm • 0 0 • view
The range covers the needed area - which is a larger area than that covered by FM stations. So what would be the purpose of ending the mandate?
aug 30, 2025, 7:00 pm • 1 0 • view
A broadcaster whose programming does not interest the public will go out of business. (Yes, I know that's not the legal definition of "public interest", but it doesn't matter how Vital And Essential To Our Public Discourse some station's programming is if no one chooses to listen!)
aug 30, 2025, 7:09 pm • 1 0 • view
And now that options for media sources are quite literally 2 or 3 orders of magnitude higher than they were pre-1990, no one needs to sit through content they don't care about.
aug 30, 2025, 7:09 pm • 1 0 • view
In Ye Olde Dayse, broadcasters typically aired commercials at about the same time, so, flipping channels just meant more commercials. Might as well stay put. This is not the case anymore. (For that matter, less and less media is sent as a continuous stream. People now pick *programs*, not channels.)
aug 30, 2025, 7:09 pm • 1 0 • view
I don't say "Let's see what's on Channel 2" anymore. I say, "Let's catch up on 'Abbot Elementary', it's on Hulu." 10 year old me would have been gobsmacked at the idea if I wanted to watch any particular episode of 'Star Trek' at any time, I could.
aug 30, 2025, 7:09 pm • 1 0 • view
Why should they be required to install seat belts and airbags? Those "might be useless" too. (Heck and are in fact useless the vast majority of the time.)
aug 30, 2025, 4:02 pm • 4 0 • view
You can plan when you might be driving out of cell phone, FM, whatever, range. People don't wake up in the morning planning to get into a head-on collision. How many Americans died because they didn't have an AM radio last year? Because about 20-30,000 died in collisions.
aug 30, 2025, 4:06 pm • 0 0 • view
How many people didn’t die last year because they had AM radios?
aug 30, 2025, 6:59 pm • 0 0 • view
Man, this side you're ignorantly digging in on really seats you on the side with people who want to demolish all the safety regulations that took decades to claw out. What are you even doing right now. Wild fires & weather events are NOT going to be getting any better, my friend.
aug 30, 2025, 7:26 pm • 1 0 • view
I very clearly am in favor of seatbelts and airbags though. Don't you think you're being a tad histrionic? But let's back up. This whole conversation got started because I was suggesting alternatives to "ban Fox News" that would actually be legal/constitutional.
aug 30, 2025, 8:35 pm • 0 0 • view
Even if you're in the middle of nowhere, I can't think of a single person in my life, young or old, city or rural, that would remember AM radio exists in an emergency.
aug 30, 2025, 3:55 pm • 2 0 • view
I drive through numerous areas with signage to tune to a specific AM station for current road and weather conditions.
aug 30, 2025, 4:04 pm • 3 0 • view
Same. But have you ever *tuned in*
aug 30, 2025, 6:37 pm • 0 0 • view
Yes. Numerous times when I have needed accurate, up-to-date information on whether or not the bridge had flooded or if the pass was closed because of snow. It is a lot safer to go around initially instead of having to turn back.
aug 30, 2025, 7:04 pm • 2 0 • view
Yes. Weekly in the winter & twice just this week. Where do you live?? You see the sign flashing & you DON'T tune in?
aug 30, 2025, 7:18 pm • 2 0 • view
I've tuned in a few times and I've never found it particularly useful. We can also use low-power FM transmitters or push/SMS notifications for this. There is nothing inherently superior about AM radio, and in fact there are several things that are worse (susceptibility to noise and interference).
aug 30, 2025, 8:42 pm • 1 0 • view
You cannot use push/SMS notifications if you are in an area with no cell service. And if *you’ve* never found it useful, well…
aug 30, 2025, 9:58 pm • 2 0 • view
About 20 European countries are shutting down their AM radio bands entirely.
aug 30, 2025, 8:43 pm • 1 0 • view
By removing the fairness doctrine, and fast-tracking Rupert Murdochs citizenship, Reagan slow walked us into fascism. The damage done must be exposed and urgent mitigation attempts made. IF we CANT reinstall the FAIRNESS DOCTRINE, i agree with opposing the AM mandate. I prefer fairness tho.
aug 30, 2025, 3:47 pm • 4 0 • view
🎯
aug 30, 2025, 3:49 pm • 1 0 • view
We need to bring it back and expand it. The Fairness Doctrine never applied to cable tv, only network, and that's how we got FOX!
aug 30, 2025, 3:57 pm • 3 0 • view
No, child, you're thinking of the First Amendment. Good to know you hate that though.
aug 31, 2025, 9:51 pm • 0 0 • view
The fairness doctrine was one of those inconvenient tools of governance that political lawyers hated and they conspired in both parties to let it die You first you have to get rid of the political lawyers They don't serve anyone but themselves
aug 30, 2025, 4:07 pm • 2 0 • view
That would require a new Constitutional amendment creating exceptions to the First Amendment. (And the Fairness Doctrine didn't do what you sound like you think it did.)
aug 30, 2025, 6:06 pm • 3 0 • view