Media Changes

A short time ago Uniquecrash5 asked me 5 questions… and one of them was what can be done to fix the American political system? I answered here, about how I wanted to change the all or nothing system we have- feeling that run off voting would be the best ‘quick fix’ for our system.
HOWEVER this made me want to blog about changes I feel MUST be done to the media. At the beginning of the radio age, the U.S. government was smart enough to LEASE the airwaves. Saying that the radio waves, and latter tv waves, belong to us as in ‘We the people’. Neither of the following ideas is new, but I think they are both good.

The first was presented to me over a decade ago by my step father, who is a fiscal republican (didn’t vote in the last two presidential elections), cheaper ads for campaigns, making it easier to run for office. One of the biggest problems with today’s politics is the current system favors the rich and the sell outs. In order to launch a good campaign, you have to raise OODLES of money to pay for radio and tv ads… so people know who you are( and/or how evil the other candidate is). By making tv and radio stations discount the amount they charge candidates you get rid of a lot of the evils of fund raising. Again it’s a simple thing that will never get done because a) politicians do NOT want to make it easier for people to run against them and b) the ‘special interest’ groups would lobby against this as it would make them lose MAJOR power.

The other idea, which would NEVER get past the republican controlled senate, go back to the pre Reagan, Equal Time Law/Act. Basically in the 40s, 50s, 60s ,and 70s Networks had ‘equal time laws’, which means for each story they did about one candidate, they’d have to do one about the other candidate… for each commercial they sold to one side, they’d have to sell equal time to the other side.
This chance of this being reinstated is about as likely as me throwing a brick and hitting Evan’s front window in Ca.
It won’t be done because the republicans have Fox News to help them do their dirty work. The republicans have radio stations and at least one entire network spewing their spin 24/7, there is no way they’d allow it to be shortened to 12/3 ½ … or worse to have Al Franken have a show following Bill.
But it would make the news a bit more fair and balanced.