Journalism has legal and ethical frameworks that seek to promote “fairness” by representing all sides of a debate. From 1949 until 1987 the US Federal Communications Commission even maintained a policy called the Fairness Doctrine that required media with broadcast licenses to offer contrasting views on controversial topics of public interest. The rule no longer applies—and even if it did, few people get their news from broadcast media any longer. But since few journalists relish being accused of bias, pressures remain for journalists to present both sides of disagreements (or at least appear
...more
