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The News

Why should we care

if Charles Gibson

beats Katie Couric?Is Brian Williams

the pretty one*

*Thanks to Jon Stewart

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The News

Editorializing on

television banned

since the early1940s with the

Mayflower Doctrine

but enforcement

faded by the end ofthe decade

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The News

The Fairness Doctrine - 1949

To insure that coverage ofcontroversial issues be balancedand fair

Station licensees were publictrustees and had an obligation togive reasonable opportunity todiscussion of contrasting points ofview on controversial issues - they

had to allow all points of view Defined more extensively in 1969

No personal attacks

Political editorializing

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A license permits broadcasting,but the licensee has noconstitutional right to be the onewho holds the license or to

monopolize a...frequency to theexclusion of his fellow citizens.There is nothing in the FirstAmendment which prevents theGovernment from requiring alicensee to share his frequencywith others.... It is the right of

the viewers and listeners, notthe right of the broadcasters,which is paramount. U.S.Supreme Court, upholding theconstitutionality of the FairnessDoctrine in Red Lion

Broadcasting Co. v. FCC, 1969

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The News

In tandem with the

Communications Act of 1937

requiring stations to provide

equal opportunity to all legallyqualified candidates if they had

allowed any other candidate to

use the station

While the 1937 act exempted

the news, documentaries andinterviews, the Fairness

Doctrine included them

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The News

1954 - Edward R.

Murrow attacked Sen.

McCarthys methods on

his show See It Now

Led to the Army-

McCarthy hearings

McCarthys bombastic

style did not play well

in PeoriaSen. Joseph McCarthy

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The Communications Act

was passed by Congress

whereas the Fairness

Doctrine was FCC policy Journalist considered it a

violation of the First

Amendment - reporters

wanted to be allowed to

balance their own stories Fairness should not be

forced by a governmental

regulatory body

Edward R. Murrow

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As a result of the

Fairness Doctrine,

many reportersshied away from

controversial stories

where the other side

would have to bepresented

J. Fred Muggs on Today

Edward R. Murrow & Marilyn Monroe

8/14/2019 434 Week 4

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The News By the 1980s there was

cable so there was noscarcity of information

This and deregulation

helped dismantle theFairness Doctrine whichwas seen as a burdenon stations

FCCs Fairness Reportin 1985 said that thedoctrine may actuallyhave a chilling effect

The Museum of Broadcast Communications

http://www.museum.tv/museumsection.php?page=60http://www.museum.tv/museumsection.php?page=60

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In 1987, the courts

decided that the Fairness

Doctrine did not have to

be enforced and the FCCdissolved it

Congress tried to make it

law but legislation was

vetoed by Reagan andagain later by Bush, Sr.

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No required balance

in broadcasting

today

You must rely on

your own

information and

judgment to discernwhether coverage is

one-sided or not

Obama's Opposition to the Fairness

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/174455-Obama_Restates_Opposition_to_Return_of_Fairness_Doctrine.phphttp://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/174455-Obama_Restates_Opposition_to_Return_of_Fairness_Doctrine.php

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Edward R. Murrow, the mosthonored and distinguishedbroadcast journalist everperiod

Began in radio (CBS) in 1935

Left to work for the KennedyAdministration in 1961

Quaker upbringing instilled a strongethical through line in all his work

Frequent champion of free speech,truth, democratic ideals andindividual liberty

His style went out of style after theMcCarthy era it did not help thathe frequently lambasted hiscolleagues for pandering

Murrow on the Radio

http://www.otr.com/murrow.shtmlhttp://www.otr.com/murrow.shtml

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Good Night & Good Luck, 2005

Directed by George Clooney

We will not walk in fear of oneanother.

Murrow & his producer, FredFriendly, bring down U.S.Senator Joe McCarthy who wasresponsible for the Communistwitch hunts in government andHollywood in the 1940s-1950s

McCarthyism

McCarthy Bio

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmccarthy.htmhttp://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmccarthy.htm

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The News The actual conclusion to the

speech, after Murrow's line abouttelevision, used strictly forentertainment rather thaneducation, being nothing more than

wires and lights in a box, went asfollows: "There is a great andperhaps decisive battle to be foughtagainst ignorance, intolerance andindifference. This weapon oftelevision could be useful. StonewallJackson, who knew something

about the use of weapons, isreported to have said, 'When warcomes, you must draw the swordand throw away the scabbard.' Thetrouble with television is that it isrusting in the scabbard during a

battle for survival."