The New World of the New Media

Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily has a great column today on how the "new media" was born.

I think I know the precise day "the New Media revolution" was born – and, no, it was not the date Al Gore invented the Internet.

Specifically, it was Aug. 4, 1987 – 20 years ago this Saturday. And I'll bet there won't be a commemoration anywhere in America or around the world – except maybe at my house.

That day was the day the FCC abolished it's "Fairness Doctrine" rule. Farah also pays tribute to President Ronald Reagan's veto two months earlier of a bill that would have set the FCC "Fairness Doctrine" regulation actually into law.

Why did Reagan do that? Just simply following the Constitution:

In doing so, Reagan said, "The framers of the First Amendment, confident that public debate would be freer and healthier without the kind of interference represented by the 'Fairness Doctrine,' chose to forbid such regulations in the clearest terms: 'Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.'"

I was in high school in the early '80s and was on the high school newspaper for four years, and as editor my senior year. Since I really enjoyed writing and had been interested in current events since junior high, I thought long and hard about going into journalism after high school.

It was probably a cowardly decision on my part, but I looked around at the world of media in the mid 1980s and saw only an unending sea of liberalism. I got to meet several NBC journalists for a news special in Memphis, and saw nothing different in person, either. Remember the situation back then? As Farah says,

In 1987, three major broadcast networks presented the semi-official newscasts. You could choose between ABC, CBS and NBC. But there was really no choice at all. All three evening newscasts were remarkably similar – almost as if they were produced by the same team. And indeed it was.

That team was called the New York Times. The front page was show prep for all three network newscasts.

So I chickened out and didn't go that route. Yet somehow, after 10 years in the military and a number of other jobs and pursuits, God seems to have brought me back around to that passion once again, even if I'm only dabbling in it as I try to keep the bills paid and raise a family. Perhaps God can not only redeem the years the locust ate, but redeem chickens as well.

Thank God, our choices are much greater now. Rush Limbaugh came on the scene shortly after the "Fairness Doctrine" went down, and we began to see more conservative newspapers, Fox News, WorldNetDaily, and now the pajama-clad warriors of media accountability: the bloggers.

If you don't remember the bleak outlook for information back in the old days, when liberalism had a lock on the news, read Farah's column and give thanks for what we have today. Thank God for those pioneers who had the courage to carve out a place for the everyday American perspective on the news. Thank God for the media voice that lets you know: no, you aren't crazy for still loving God and country, and America the way she was and was always intended to be.

Liberalism still dominates the media, but at least there is choice now. At least there is now a voice of one crying in the wilderness, where once there was only silence.