Dear Nattering Nabobs and other News Neighbors:

The other day I saw a meme using a photograph of Walter Cronkite. The text pined the days when anchormen read the news and the nation tuned in and trusted. The comments that followed implied a moral decline among those overseeing broadcast journalism; we were just better people when there were only four networks (I include PBS’ MacNeil/Lehrer news report even though it was a latecomer in 1975). But the death of trustworthy reporting comes with a history.

President Calvin Coolidge championed The Radio Act of 1927, when the AM radio band had become so cluttered with stations that transmitter operators demanded a system of frequency guarantee. The Radio Act created the Federal Radio Commission (FRC), a government agency charged with regularizing frequency control. The system created a taxable market of an unlimited supply of airwaves by limiting the number of broadcast licenses, which regulated the location and transmission power of each station.

Recognizing the potential for powerful monopolies to dominate the airwaves, the FRC (which became the FCC in 1935) created community standards to which corporations needed to comply if they wished to renew their broadcast license. The broadcasters, perceived to be public trustees of their radio bands, were subject to standards of responsible broadcasting. Some standards restricted language and content (see George Carlin’s Seven Words…); other standards provided guidelines for presentation of controversial topics.

Chief among these standards was the fairness doctrine of 1949, which stipulated that controversial issues must be presented by broadcasters in an “honest, equitable and balanced” manner. The doctrine also stipulated that there be a clear division between news and editorial. Those from Chicago likely remember the shift in format for Walter Jacobson’s Perspective segment, clearly signifying to viewers by his taking off his suit jacket that this was Walter’s opinion and not news.

The days of Walter Cronkite trustworthiness ended just six years after his 1981 retirement. In 1987 Congress passed a bill to renew the fairness doctrine as part of an FCC reevaluation. Ronald Reagan vetoed the bill, claiming it had a chilling effect on free speech. Shortly after the veto, the venerable network of Edward Murrow, Eric Sevareid, Bill Downs and Walter Cronkite eliminated its news division, placing it under the CBS vice-president of entertainment. 

With similar reformations of newsrooms across the spectrum of broadcast journalism, the external standards of trustworthiness ended. In addition to the standards of honesty, equality and balance, the veto also rejected the requirement of equal time in the presentation of political candidates. In 2004, this allowed Sinclair Broadcasting to air through its outlets in over 40 markets Stolen Honor, a documentary critical of John Kerry’s military record, less than three weeks before the presidential election. Although the documentary was later discredited, the broadcast was permitted without notation as editorial or a need for response.

As it stands now, the line between information and editorial is completely erased, and news groups are free to be as partisan as their owners choose. This, I believe, contributes to an atmosphere where politics now divides more deeply than religion, but that’s a musing for another Monday. Turns out, for now, Walter can leave his jacket on.

Freely editorializing without rebuttal, I remain,

With Love,
Jonathan Krogh
Your Pastor

With Love,
Jonathan Krogh
Your Pastor