Progressive Democrat Issue 47: MEDIA ACTION

I was reminded in a dKos diary that one of the most important issues for progressives is a return to the Fairness Doctrine. To quote from this diary:

There is only one important issue right now.

This is the reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine. It was nuked by Ronald Reagan and it's responsible for the mess we're in now.

Have you watched TV or listened to the radio lately? There is no moderate voice; there is no leftist voice. There is only the right and the marginalization of anything and everything that is in opposition.

Remember when you could watch the news and there was a delineated "Editorial Section" where "opposing views are invited to speak?" What happened to that? That's what the Fairness Doctrine provided. If you disagree with the crap opinions you hear, you had a right to petition to have an equal voice in the media.

This voice is gone now.

Until the right to appear in the media and oppose the status quo is reinstated, it doesn't matter if Bush is caught in bed with Saddam's gay lover, it will be ignored.
This is an essential right that was taken away in 1987 and it heralded the birth of "right wing talk radio". However, if we launched the right campaign, we could get a majority of people to rally to reinstate this. YOUR VOICE SHOULD BE HEARD. It won't be heard until we reinstate the Fairness Doctrine.

Without the Fairness Doctrine, the media is dominated by the wealthy, who tend to be Republicans. So the information that most Americans hear are what the wealthy, mostly Republican, owners of media companies WANT them to hear. That means, for example, that in NYC all people hear is how wonderful Bloomberg is and how bad Ferrer is, meaning that the mayoral election is almost one sided, if the media is to be believed. The truth is different. Ferrer is better than the media portrays and Bloomberg is FAR worse than the media portrays.

We HAVE to work to re-establish the Fairness Doctrine. This and fighting against expensive, unreliable, unverifiable eVote machines are the two biggest fights we have. So, you know the routine. Write Congress and write the media. We HAVE to sound off or our voices will be silenced.