How Extreme Bipartisanism Rose in the United States

Reagan kills the Fairness Doctrine (1987) - Broadcasting used to require stations to present both sides of controversial issues. Reagan's FCC scraps it, which opens the door for openly one-sided political media. Rush Limbaugh fills the vacuum (late 80s/early 90s) - Without the Fairness Doctrine, AM radio becomes a playground for right-wing talk radio. Limbaugh pioneers the format: rage, tribalism, "us vs. them." He builds a massive audience that learns to distrust mainstream media entirely a...

 History of the Fairness Doctrine and Rise of Media Relati...

The intellectual erosion of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, as science sat silently on the sidelines and anti-science rose to rule on both the left and the right, was greatly worsened in August of 1987 when, during the administration of President Ronald Reagan, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) abolished what was called the "fairness doctrine" in an historic 4-0 vote, severing one of the last ties to a common public foundation of knowledge and its cousin, the carefully researched publi...