The Fairness Doctrine, By Brian37 (Now Jackie Leigh outside my poetry) (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on Twitter/X)

Citizens United has our nation divided
Powder keg propaganda has been ignited
Jerry Springer Spray tan Squatter gets exited
Over his Military Parade but it’s a charade

The First Amendment’s free press was never intended
To become an episode of WWE, or Judge Judy
Journalists like Cronkite and Murrow
Would be horrified heads bowed in sorrow

At what Rupert and the GOP have done
47 and his party vilify journalist and aren’t sorry
But it is by their own hand if they want to claim
That the left has no aim but to be the enemy

There was an FCC policy, put in place a long time ago
That said journalists had a duty to show
That their reporting was fact
And not a carnival act

It was intended to be
Like a doctor’s Hippocratic Oath
But with journalist it was
To always tell the truth

But Reagan undid the Fairness pact
And objective journalism went off track
And Fox News has gone on the attack
Blaming liberal media at every turn

But their party was the one to burn
The very law, that demanded all
All who reported the news
Had a duty to the truth

Their hypocrisy morbidly uncouth
Hannity’s directors sit in Russian booths
Bots and algorithms feed fans poison
All so the orange one can continue treason

There was a time when
The Weekly World News
Was satire like 151 booze
No one took seriously

And the sycophants deliriously
Double down on all the absurdities
And the masses are convinced
Just like Kim Jong Un is a legend

Who made 19 holes in one
It’s the same at Mar A Lago
Grifting authoritarian fun
Soon you will be under the gun

And no one will be there
To speak up for you
You will be the last one
Then nothing but silence and obedience

Or death.
(end)

The F.C.C. created the “Fairness Doctrine” that was basically like the Hippocratic Oath, but for journalists. It basically said that you, as a journalist had to act in the best interest of the public by being objective and you could not put out propaganda that could incite or deliberately lie to the public that could cause harm.

It is absolutely true that corporate media has always existed. But up until Fox news ditched it’s “Balanced motto, it has become nothing more than a political mouth piece for a party that doesn’t want to share power or concede in a loss, but just wants absolute power. And Rupert Murdock paved that way. Fox is the Weekly World News and Alex Jone’s now defunct Info Wars combined. The Weekly World News was entertainment conspiracy crap with stories about a have bat have boy “batboy”, and nutty garbage like that. But Not news, it never was. It always had an agenda of spreading Christian Nationalism, and the willingness to use lies, and propaganda and conspiracy to cause confusion and sell add space.

And what is extremely rich about them accusing liberal media of lying, is that they had a tool called “The Fairness Doctrine” that applied to everyone, liberal and conservative media alike. But in the 1980s Ronald Reagan got rid of that, which paved the way for “entertainment news” and even Sean Hannity once said, “I am not a journalist, I am an entertainer”, but did so when called out on his lies. If he is just an entertainer, then why is network he works for called “Fox News”?

He knew damned well, as well as all the sycophants at Farts Noise that people listen to them, and believe the bullshit they sell is fact when it is not.
And when you combine the U.S. Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” to that climate, I basically was like pouring gas on a fire that made Vampires real to many, and Crop Circles everyone’s GPS app.

Citizens United basically said billionaires could pump as much money into a political campaign, and have the attack ads be nothing but lies. So the truth is it was never about honesty for the right wing or right wing media, it was only about winning.