Daily Kos has a chart of conservatives and liberals on the Sunday talk shows. The chart shows all three morning shows lean heavily into the red/conservative guests. We often hear Fox News and Instapundit cry about the liberal media. Why then are the shows so conservative?
The Fairness Doctrine was passed by Congress because "public interest requires ample play for the free and fair competition of opposing views, and the commission believes that the principle applies … to all discussion of issues of importance to the public." That changed in the 80s. Ronald Reagan abolished the fairness doctrine. Reagan went as far as vetoing the Fairness in Broadcasting Act of 1987. If media is really slanted to the left then why aren't conservative attempting to restore the Fairness Doctrine? That's something to ask Bill O'Reilly or Glenn Reynolds.
Though I certainly don't prescribe to the notion of the runaway liberal media, I think a lot of the skew in the guest demographic can be chalked up to conservatives being in power. And since the White House hogs all the information, they're the only place to go for questions.
ReplyDeleteStill you'd like to think that anytime a member of the current administration is on a show the producers would make an effort to book someone to give a counterpoint. I for one avoid those shows like the plague so I don't know how well they do in that respect.
The conservatives were taking over the talk shows during the Clinton administration. The Clinton bashing was constant and there was often no counterpart. Epecially, on the cable shows.
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