Alphecca

Force Media Balance

I'm not a lawyer (but I play one on TV) so I really don't know the constitutionality of this modest proposal. It will never be possible to have unbiased reporting on TV, radio, and newspapers but I'd like to suggest a couple of ideas that might help.

If I'm not mistaken, financial planners or commentators in the media are required to disclose if they own any personal stake or stock in a company they are recommending.

Why not require the same disclosure from news reporters. All TV, radio and newspaper reporters would be required at the start of any broadcast or non-op-ed story regarding a political campaign to reveal if they've donated to or campaigned for any political candidate or party.

So Katie and Matt on the Today Show would be required at the top of each broadcast to fess-up to any contributions they've made to Democrats.

In addition, just as candidates are supposed to be provided with equal time on the airwaves, so too the Today Show (to use an example of a TV network that has badly abused their Democratic bias) would have to provide equal time to movies and books that attack one candidate or another.

So if the Today Show interviews four authors, each of which has anti-Bush books or movies, they would be required to provide similar interviews to authors with anti-Kerry books or movies. In addition, the interviews would have to be of approximately the same length and appear at about the same time of the day.

Furthermore, (and folks, I know this is all a silly fantasy that couldn't ever happen...) they would be required to have follow-ups to such "political" authors if conflicting information should be discovered or if the claims by that author are later found to be untrue. Example: The Today Show interviews Joe Wilson several times about his book and his claims that "Bush lied." They would then have to spend an equal amount of time examining the facts brought about by the 9/11 commission refuting Wilson's charges. The same requirements would apply to newspaper coverage including placement of contrary material on the same page number that the original charges were reported on.

Lastly, since none of this could ever happen, why don't Republicans, or at least some conservative groups file lawsuits (take a page from the Democrats here...) and try to show that ABC, CBS, and NBC have NOT lived up to their promise to provide a proper balance to their news shows -- which to my mind says that they are not broadcasting for the good of the communities -- and that their FCC licenses should be revoked. This can't happen at the small affiliate level but certainly the five stations each network owns themselves could be brought under legal fire.

And remember, there is a difference between a news show and a talk or political commentary show. If the networks are going to label their broadcasts as "news" then they must meet certain standards of equal time and fairness. And yes, Fox would have to follow the same rules.

Well, that's my daydream for today...

Update 8/16: Blogger TriggerFinger has taken me to task over this post and he makes valid arguments. I just hope most readers here know that I wasn't being serious. I think I mentioned several times that this (my ideas) were simply fantasies and daydreams of how I wish things worked. I am not in favor of governmental regulation of the news industry anymore than I am of their intruding in any other part of our lives...