they used to have the fairness doctrine but Reagan overturned that. Because encouraging media to present both sides of a story, abstain from personal attacks, and be honest was stifling republican "viewpoints".
I had no idea about this, thank you!
I was born in the early 70s, and I have noticed there is a distinct difference in how the news is presented in comparison to when I was younger. The balance disappeared, and it became more about editorializing and presentation based on bias, rather than educating and informing. Not that there wasn't bias before, but I've had extensive education in print journalism, and a foundational ethic was to remove as much bias as possible and to present facts without intent to sway, which news organizations and presenters used to regularly put forward as their value and intention. Print journalists were vigorously taught to guard against slanting and editorializing, and editors were to screen for them as a backup.
I'm not sure how this relates, only sense that it does, but I also noticed that the news since I was a child presents less and less of what's going on in the world and has become totally US-centric. If there's news about another country, it's usually to make citizens more against them, whether to hate them, fear them, and/or to encourage staying in the States rather than traveling and experiencing the rest of the world and learning other perspectives.
