The Fairness Doctrine

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The fairness doctrine was that piece of policy that required stations to present multiple perspectives on coverage of controversial issues. Reagan's FCC points to a new thing called cable television to say that that scarcity argument isn't really relevant anymore. The idea was that with cable, there are now tons and tons of channels.

If you’ve ever flipped through the radio dial — not satellite, not podcasts, but good old-fashioned AM and FM radio — you may have noticed something. Right wing radio talk is everywhere.

But the airwaves weren't always so dominated by such a narrow range of voices. Reporter and friend of the show Katie Thornton has the story of how talk radio has evolved (and perhaps devolved at times) over the past century, and what all of it means for the airwaves today.

The Divided Dial

Hear the rest of the the series from On the Media