But Reagan killed the Fairness Doctrine

I have mixed feelings about the Fairness Doctrine, because the practical consequence of the rule only ever seemed to give you a narrow “moderate liberal says X, moderate conservative says Y” corporately approved view. Hard to look at the modern media landscape and think to myself “Damn, if only we had more episodes of Crossfire to fix this”.

But yes, after the Fairness Doctrine, you saw an absolute flood of Rush-tier content that could blast uncontested bullshit all over the airwaves endlessly. The FCC went limp and allowed this to roll over the country.

I might also throw in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which started a Katamari-esque consolidation of local radio and tv networks into the modern Clear Channel and Sinclair Media mega-monopolies. A big reason why Rush was a household name by the late '00s stemmed from all these local stations being force-fed his syndicated content, which was blasted practically 24/7 in rotation with a handful of other right-wing talking heads. This guy was cranking out three hours of content a day five days a week, and the shows would play back-to-back on a loop morning, noon, and night.

Fuck, why is it that almost everything that is bad in the US can be traced back to Reagan. It’s unbelievable

"In 1969, the court “ruled unanimously that the Fairness Doctrine was not only constitutional, but essential to democracy. The public airwaves should not just express the opinions of those who can pay for air time; they must allow the electorate to be informed about all sides of controversial issues.”

That’s how it started. I kept reading and it dawned on me how important it is to re-read what was learned in history class.