Once We Insisted On Civility: Reflections on Tucson

[marmar]

from OnTheCommons.org:




Once We Insisted On Civility: Reflections on Tucson
From 1930 to 1987 TV and radio broadcasts were required to be fair and balanced. And then we abandoned those rules and talk radio became hate radio.

By David Morris


In the wake of the murders in Tucson, our leaders once again are calling for civility in public discourse. We forget that for almost 40 years we didn’t have to plead for civility. We demanded it. The story of how we did so, and why we stopped, illuminates the intersection of politics and culture.


At the dawn of the broadcasting era, the government declared that the airwaves belonged to the public and fashioned rules to protect the public interest. Broadcasters paid no money for their licenses; in return license renewals depended on whether the station served the public interest. Broadcasters were “public trustees.” As the Federal Radio Commission (FRC), forerunner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), explained, “It is as if people of a community should own a station and turn it over to the best man in sight with this injunction: ‘Manage this station in our interest.’”

The Commission made clear there was no room for “propaganda stations”.

In 1930, the FRC made concrete what it meant by public interest by denying a license renewal to a Los Angeles station used primarily to broadcast sermons that attacked Jews, Roman Catholic church officials, and law enforcement agencies.

In 1949, the FCC introduced what later became known as the Fairness Doctrine. Coverage of issues “must be fair in the sense that it provides an opportunity for the presentation of contrasting points of view.” In 1974 the FCC called the fairness doctrine “the single most important requirement of operation in the public interest.” ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://onthecommons.org/once-we-insisted-civility-reflections-tucson