“Surely, we have evolved to the stage here in this century that we can understand some sort of balance, some sort of sense. To me it is a feeling that my country is spilling out hatred and lies on many, many of these stations (talk radio) to people who hear nothing but that, who never believe or hear any countervailing opinion ..” Louise Slaughter, Interview with Bill Moyers
Americans are more frequently getting their election news from cable news networks, morning TV shows, talk radio, NPR, the Internet and Comedy TV shows (Conservative Colbert Report and Liberal Daily Show, for example.). There has been a decline in accessing other sources of news, especially nightly network news, daily newspapers and news magazines. The Chart also shows that there are so many sources of information to Americans, that it leads one to believe that, as said by Adrian Cronauer, the Fairness Doctrine is a solution in search of a problem. Is having so many media outlets effecting our individual freedom, order or equality between individuals and groups in our society?
Some, such as Ms. Slaughter, might argue that there is unfair media bias slanting towards Conservative thought, but fairness is in the eye of the beholder. According to the polling, overall, about as many Americans now say news organizations are biased in favor of one of the two parties as say there is no bias in election coverage (39% vs. 38%). A much larger number of Democrats believe that coverage of the campaign (Presidential campaign of the year 2000) tilted in favor of Republicans. More than four in ten Republicans (42%) see news coverage of the campaign as biased in favor of the Democrats. There has also been a significant number of Independents that believe the election news is not free of bias.
Conclusions can be drawn from the polling results that, across the board, whether Conservative, Liberal, Independent, or specific age groups, or educational backgrounds, more than 50% of respondents to the survey believed that there was bias in the media. And each of the groups believed that the bias was toward opposing opinions from their own. More importantly would be the indication that Americans are going to all sources in the media for their news, and they are aware that it is necessary to sift through all of the information to find out what is really going on, or perhaps sift through to substantiate their preconceived ideas about a topic.
Radio has been accused of being the most biased, and influencing the most voters, according to Louise Slaughter and other supporters of the Fairness Doctrine. But as can be seen in the chart at the right, compared to the other sources of information, a very small percentage of voters get their campaign news from the radio. Democrats and Independents tend to look to newspapers and the mainstream nightly news stations for their campaign news.
Those rallying for the return of the Fairness Doctrine believe that what some consider politically incorrect speech must be “balanced” by law – which is to say, by the government. Others have a different opinion. In a discussion of the Fairness Doctrine, then Vice President of the United States Al Gore said, “The administration sees market forces replacing regulations and judicial models that are no longer appropriate. The administration’s goal is to provide the principles…one of those principles should be to trust in an overall market concept in the coverage of public issues with the obvious First Amendment advantages it provides.” In other words, a media outlet, in its efforts to bring in a larger audience, has the right to report the news the way their customers want to see it or hear it.
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