Enemy of the People: the Ghost of the F.C.C. Fairness Doctrine in the Age of Alternative Facts
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Approval of George W. Bush: Economic and Media Impacts Gino Tozzi Jr
Wayne State University Wayne State University Dissertations 1-1-2011 Approval of George W. Bush: Economic and media impacts Gino Tozzi Jr. Wayne State University, Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations Part of the Mass Communication Commons, and the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Tozzi Jr., Gino, "Approval of George W. Bush: Economic and media impacts" (2011). Wayne State University Dissertations. Paper 260. This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@WayneState. It has been accepted for inclusion in Wayne State University Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@WayneState. APPROVAL OF GEORGE W. BUSH: ECONOMIC AND MEDIA IMPACTS by GINO J. TOZZI JR. DISSERTATION Submitted to the Graduate School of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 2011 MAJOR: POLITICAL SCIENCE Approved by: _________________________________ Chair Date _________________________________ _________________________________ _________________________________ © COPYRIGHT BY GINO J. TOZZI JR. 2011 All Rights Reserved DEDICATION To my Father ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to thank my committee chair Professor Ewa Golebiowska for the encouragement and persistence on only accepting the best from me in this process. I also owe my committee of Professor Ronald Brown, Professor Jodi Nachtwey, and Professor David Martin a debt of gratitude for their help and advisement in this endeavor. All of them were instrumental in keeping my focus narrowed to produce the best research possible. I also owe appreciation to the commentary, suggestions, and research help from my wonderful wife Courtney Tozzi. This project was definitely more enjoyable with her encouragement and help. -
Information Gatekeeping and Media Bias
A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Eraslan, Hülya; Özertürk, Saltuk Working Paper Information gatekeeping and media bias Working Paper, No. 1808 Provided in Cooperation with: Koç University - TÜSİAD Economic Research Forum, Istanbul Suggested Citation: Eraslan, Hülya; Özertürk, Saltuk (2018) : Information gatekeeping and media bias, Working Paper, No. 1808, Koç University-TÜSİAD Economic Research Forum (ERF), Istanbul This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/202982 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. www.econstor.eu KOÇ UNIVERSITY-TÜSİAD ECONOMIC RESEARCH FORUM WORKING PAPER SERIES INFORMATION GATEKEEPING AND MEDIA BIAS Hülya Eraslan Saltuk Özertürk Working Paper 1808 March 2018 This Working Paper is issued under the supervision of the ERF Directorate. -
Who Is the Attorney General's Client?
\\jciprod01\productn\N\NDL\87-3\NDL305.txt unknown Seq: 1 20-APR-12 11:03 WHO IS THE ATTORNEY GENERAL’S CLIENT? William R. Dailey, CSC* Two consecutive presidential administrations have been beset with controversies surrounding decision making in the Department of Justice, frequently arising from issues relating to the war on terrorism, but generally giving rise to accusations that the work of the Department is being unduly politicized. Much recent academic commentary has been devoted to analyzing and, typically, defending various more or less robust versions of “independence” in the Department generally and in the Attorney General in particular. This Article builds from the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Co. Accounting Oversight Board, in which the Court set forth key principles relating to the role of the President in seeing to it that the laws are faithfully executed. This Article draws upon these principles to construct a model for understanding the Attorney General’s role. Focusing on the question, “Who is the Attorney General’s client?”, the Article presumes that in the most important sense the American people are the Attorney General’s client. The Article argues, however, that that client relationship is necessarily a mediated one, with the most important mediat- ing force being the elected head of the executive branch, the President. The argument invokes historical considerations, epistemic concerns, and constitutional structure. Against a trend in recent commentary defending a robustly independent model of execu- tive branch lawyering rooted in the putative ability and obligation of executive branch lawyers to alight upon a “best view” of the law thought to have binding force even over plausible alternatives, the Article defends as legitimate and necessary a greater degree of presidential direction in the setting of legal policy. -
Media Literacy
Media Literacy This lesson explores the concept of fake news and its impact on everyday life. Grade Level(s) Materials 9, 10, 11, 12 None required Cyber Connections Information Literacy Digital Citizenship This lesson explores the concept of fake news and its impact on every day life. “Fake news” stories, from silly stories about sightings of the Loch Ness Monster to serious allegations of crimes by public officials, have recently made the news. People have even debated how much influence fake news might have had on the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Even the definition of the term “fake news” is open to debate. Later in the lesson we’ll look at the role of journalism in a democracy and how we can improve our media literacy habits. Throughout the lesson, students will have the opportunity to research and answer the following questions: • What exactly is fake news from a journalistic perspective? • Does fake news impact our lives? • How do citizens’ skills in using media of all sorts impact the discussion? • How can media literacy skills make us more informed citizens? • Does it matter? Defining Media Literacy Media literacy is defined as the ability to evaluate news, regardless of where it comes from, based on evidence presented and the reliability of sources, recognize bias, and distinguish between news, advertisements, and opinion. Let’s look at some examples of headlines and see if we can tell what’s real from what’s fake. 1 Copyright © 2020 Cyber Innovation Center All Rights Reserved. Not for Distribution. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Fact or Fake? Other considerations to make: • How true are the articles? • How can you tell? • What could the impact be of these stories, especially if someone believes the fake? • What could be the impact of these stories even if no one believes them? 2 Copyright © 2020 Cyber Innovation Center All Rights Reserved. -
The Case of the “Ground Zero Mosque” Controversy
A Theoretical Study of Solidarity in American Society: The Case of the “Ground Zero Mosque” Controversy Fatemeh Mohammadi1 * , Hamed Mousavi2 1. PhD Candidate in Anthropology, Carleton University, Canada (Corresponding Author: [email protected]) 2. Assistant Professor, Department of Regional Studies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran ([email protected]) (Received: 5 Mar. 2017 Accepted: 8 Aug. 2017) Abstract The paper uses the case study of the controversy regarding the construction of a mosque near the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in Manhattan, New York, to analyze the different theoretical approaches to the concept of solidarity. It is argued that the presence of affectional solidarity which is based on feelings of caring, friendship and love was very limited in the case under study. Instead the primary form of solidarity present in the ground zero mosque debate was conventional solidarity, which is based primarily on common interests and concerns that are established through shared traditions and values. Nevertheless, conventional solidarity uses membership within a group to advocate for solidarity. In many instances however, people in need of solidarity might fall outside of the boundaries of “we,” and as a result limiting the utility of the approach. This is why the paper advocates for a revised form of Jodi Dean’s reflective solidarity, which is based on mutual responsibility toward each other despite our differences. It is argued that in its current form this approach is a normative universal ideal which holds great potential but is unclear, underspecified and impractical. However, by injecting some “realism” into this theoretical approach, reflective solidarity is superior to affectional and conventional approaches. -
Social Checks and Balances: a Private Fairness Doctrine
ESSAY Social Checks and Balances: A Private Fairness Doctrine Michael P. Vandenbergh∗ This Essay proposes a private standards and certification system to induce media firms to provide more complete and accurate information. It argues that this new private governance system is a viable response to the channelized flow of information that is exacerbating political polarization in the United States. Specifically, this Essay proposes development of a new private fairness doctrine to replace the standard repealed by the Federal Communications Commission in 1987. A broad-based, multistakeholder organization could develop and implement this private fairness doctrine, and the certification process could harness market and social pressure to influence the practices of traditional and new media firms. A growing literature demonstrates how private governance initiatives can perform the functions of government in the environmental, labor, gun control, animal welfare, and fair trade areas. This Essay argues that private governance initiatives such as the new private fairness doctrine can also bolster the social checks and balances that support the processes of democratic governance. Any intervention into the flow of information creates risks, but so does inaction, and the private fairness doctrine holds out the possibility of improving the information available for public discourse while limiting the risks of government intervention. In the long term, the concept of private governance can also stimulate ∗ Professor and David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair of Law, Vanderbilt University Law School. For helpful comments, I owe thanks to David Adelman, Linda Breggin, Lisa Bressman, Jim Blumstein, Joey Fishkin, Jonathan Gilligan, Jonathan Lipson, Timothy Lytton, Will Martin, Ed Rubin, Ganesh Sitaraman, Kevin Stack, Paul Stern, Rory Van Loo, the Reading Group on Private Regulation, and to workshop participants at Temple University Beasley School of Law, University of Texas School of Law, and Vanderbilt University Law School. -
Colorado Survey of 500 Likely Voters Conducted September 14, 2008 by Rasmussen Reports for FOX News
Colorado Survey of 500 Likely Voters Conducted September 14, 2008 By Rasmussen Reports for FOX News 1* How do you rate the way that George W. Bush is performing his role as President? Excellent, good, fair, or poor? 13% Excellent 20% Good 16% Fair 50% Poor 1% Not sure 2* How do you rate the way that Bill Ritter is performing his role as Governor? Excellent, good, fair, or poor? 14% Excellent 30% Good 30% Fair 24% Poor 1% Not sure 3* If the Presidential Election were held today, would you vote for Republican John McCain, Democrat Barack Obama, Libertarian Bob Barr or Independent Ralph Nader 48% McCain 46% Obama 1% Barr 3% Nader 0% McKinney 2% Not sure 4* Favorable Ratings Obama McCain Very Favorable 37% 26% Somewhat Favorable 15% 29% Somewhat Unfavorable 15% 18% Very Unfavorable 31% 24% Not sure 2% 3% 5* In terms of how you will vote for President, are you primarily interested in National Security issues such as the War with Iraq and the War on Terror, Economic issues such as jobs and economic growth, Domestic Issues like Social Security and Health Care, Cultural issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion, or Fiscal issues such as taxes and government spending? 27% National Security Issues 35% Economic Issues 13% Domestic Issues 7% Cultural Issues 12% Fiscal Issues 6% Not sure 6* Overall, which candidate do you trust more -- Barack Obama or John McCain? 46% Obama 48% McCain 6% Not sure Colorado Survey of 500 Likely Voters continued 7* Regardless of how you would vote, how comfortable would you be with Barack Obama as president? 32% -
Detecting Bias in the Media G
9.1.3 Detecting Bias in the Media g Media bias is ubiquitous (everywhere) and not easy to detect. It is always useful to compare several sources of information and, in doing so, it becomes clear that media coverage is never completely objective. Here are some forms of media bias to watch for: • Bias by omission: For every news story that is selected, there are many others that are left out. Do the news stories you see show a balanced view of real life? What are the characteristics they have in common? (e.g., Are they mostly about violence, famous people, wealth?) Do some news sources include items that are ignored by others? • Bias by emphasis: What stories are on the front page or “at the top of the hour?” Which stories get the largest headlines, or the first and longest coverage on TV or radio? Consider how this placement influences people’s sense of what is important. • Bias by use of language: The use of labels such as “terrorist,” “revolutionary,” or “freedom fighter” can create completely different impressions of the same person or event. • Bias in photos: Unflattering pictures can create bad impressions, and partial pictures of scenes can completely change the context of an event. • Bias in the source: An article about a cure for cancer written by a drug company is not the same as an article by an independent researcher. Often, private companies, governments, public relations firms, and political groups produce press releases to gain media exposure and to influence the public. • Bias by headlines: Some headlines can be deceptive, as their main purpose is to grab attention. -
The Fairness Doctrine Today: a Constitutional Curiosity and an Impossible Dream
COMMENTS THE FAIRNESS DOCTRINE TODAY: A CONSTITUTIONAL CURIOSITY AND AN IMPOSSIBLE DREAM THOMAS G. K.RATrENMAKER* AND L. A. POWE, JR.** I. THE FAIRNESS DOCTRINE Immediately following the Supreme Court's opinion in Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC,' which sustained the constitutionality of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Fairness Doctrine,2 a flurry of articles appeared describing how to apply the doctrine vigor- ously to new and different situations.3 Subsequently, especially after the Court's decision in CBS v. DemocraticNational Committee 4 curtailed ac- cess possibilities, and Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo5 refused to sustain right to reply laws for candidates attacked by the print media, most discussions of the Fairness Doctrine have addressed its constitu- tionality.6 While initially interesting, this debate has grown as predict- ably repetitious and unilluminating as a tenth rerun of "Kojak." Furthermore, the debaters appear to have lost track of what the Fairness Doctrine is and how it works. Our purpose is quite simple. We seek to rectify these oversights and, in the process, demonstrate that the Fairness Doctrine is incoherent and unworkable. We will also demonstrate that the doctrine as it oper- * Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center. ** Windfohr Professor of Law, The University of Texas. Several people have reviewed earlier drafts of this article and provided especially helpful criticism. Our thanks to Susan Bloch, Roy Schotland, Michael Seidman, and Girardeau Spann of Georgetown and David Anderson, Douglas Laycock, Richard Markovits, and Mark Yudof of Texas. 1. 395 U.S. 367 (1969). 2. 47 C.F.R. § 73.1910 (1983). -
Mass Media and the Transformation of American Politics Kristine A
Marquette Law Review Volume 77 | Issue 2 Article 7 Mass Media and the Transformation of American Politics Kristine A. Oswald Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulr Part of the Law Commons Repository Citation Kristine A. Oswald, Mass Media and the Transformation of American Politics, 77 Marq. L. Rev. 385 (2009). Available at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulr/vol77/iss2/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Marquette Law Review by an authorized administrator of Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MASS MEDIA AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICAN POLITICS I. INTRODUCTION The importance of the mass media1 in today's society cannot be over- estimated. Especially in the arena of policy-making, the media's influ- ence has helped shape the development of American government. To more fully understand the political decision-making process in this coun- try it is necessary to understand the media's role in the performance of political officials and institutions. The significance of the media's influ- ence was expressed by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: "The Press has become the greatest power within Western countries, more powerful than the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. One would then like to ask: '2 By what law has it been elected and to whom is it responsible?" The importance of the media's power and influence can only be fully appreciated through a complete understanding of who or what the media are. -
Toward a New Freedom of Expression for Broadcasters
r n'^' DOCUMENT FEMME ,111) 153 269 CS 502 038 AUTHOR Glasser, Theodore L.; Henke, Lucy L. TITLE Toward a New Freedom of Expression fcr Broadcasters. PUB DATE Mar 78 NOTE 26p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Eastern Communication Association (Boston, Massachusetts, March 16-18, 1978) 4. EDRS PRICE MF -$O.83 BC-42.06 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Accountability; Audiences; *Broadcast Industry; Broadcast Television; *Federal Court Litigation; *Federal Regula+ion; *Freedcx cf Speech; Information Dissemination; Mass Media; News Media; *Programing (Broadcast); Radio IDENTIFIERS *Fairr?ss Doctrine ABSTRACT While the First Amendment guarantees an individ! == -the right to be beard, this is an issue distinct fres assuring the opportunity to be heard. In broadcast media, the opportunity, or access, has been largely determined by tvc factors: econclice, or who owns the means to an audience, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulation of the limited frequency spectrum. Historically, the Supreme Court has extended the FCC power beyond license distribution to matters involving programing. Eventually, the "fairness doctr3.ne" evolved to ensure the consumer's right to hear, through a federal evaluation of the broadcaster's fulfillment of editorial responsibilities. However, a reascrable interpretation of - the First Amendment states that the government is tc have no direct control over the process by which people are informed. the means of transmission may be subject to external constraints, while the message is free from any form of intervention. If broadcasters are to be held accountable for their programing, then they must be free to accept responsibility for their expressions. (MAI) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. -
Application of the Fairness Doctrine to Ordinary Product Advertisements: National Citizens Committee for Broadcasting V. FCC David L
Boston College Law Review Volume 20 Article 4 Issue 2 Number 2 1-1-1979 Application of the Fairness Doctrine to Ordinary Product Advertisements: National Citizens Committee for Broadcasting v. FCC David L. Sinak Follow this and additional works at: http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/bclr Part of the Communications Law Commons Recommended Citation David L. Sinak, Application of the Fairness Doctrine to Ordinary Product Advertisements: National Citizens Committee for Broadcasting v. FCC, 20 B.C.L. Rev. 425 (1979), http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/bclr/vol20/iss2/4 This Casenotes is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Boston College Law Review by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Application of the Fairness Doctrine to Ordinary Product Advertisements: Na- tional Citizens Committee for Broadcasting v. FCC'---The fairness doctrine in broadcasting imposes a twofold obligation on television and radio broadcast licensees: licensees must broadcast material concerning controversial issues of public importance, and they must broadcast differing views on those contro- versial issues. 2 The doctrine attempts to ensure that a licensee's total pro- gramming presents balanced coverage of important public issues. 3 The fairness doctrine was developed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission),`' and was later incorporated into the Communications Act' and validated by the Supreme Court!' While the FCC considered applying the fairness doctrine to commercial advertising for over thirty years,' it did not do so until 1967.