The Fairness Doctrine

If you're about my age you probably remember a time when the public discourse wasn't quite so nasty. You probably remember a time when people could disagree about politics without hating each others guts. That time, in case you're tracking these things at home, ended on this day in 1987.

That's the day the Fairness Doctrine was rescinded.

Before that day, if you did political talk on the airwaves (which are still officially owned by the public by the way), you had to at least offer equal time to the other side of the political debate. It helped to create the entire concept of the "objective journalist," and a "fair and balanced" (pardon the phrase) media. They had to be. They had no choice. Listeners and viewers couldn't live in a bubble as easily, only hearing their own side, reinforcing their own beliefs with more and more vitriolic rhetoric, never even considering what the other side had to say.

Some people think we should bring back The Fairness Doctrine, but I'm afraid it's too late to do that. It will never happen. The floodgates are open now, and there's no closing them.

But next time somebody laments that it's gotten to this point, remember the day August 4, 1987. That's when it started.