There's a huge debate going on right now about the role of the media in American politics.

And two of the main questions are: How much is the media to blame for fueling the rise of Donald Trump? And what's the real relationship between Trump and the media?

Nicholas Kristof recently gave his opinion on the matter in the New York Times.

He explains that, "Those of us in the news media have sometimes blamed Donald Trump's rise on the Republican Party's toxic manipulation of racial resentments over the years. But we should also acknowledge another force that empowered Trump: Us."

It's really not an either/or proposition though, those two things go hand in hand.

The prevalence of right-wing hate rhetoric and the rise of Trump make it clear why, now more than ever, we need to re-instate the Fairness Doctrine and democratize our media.

Between 1949 and 1987, the Fairness Doctrine was a longstanding policy of the Federal Communications Commission that required broadcasters to give air time to controversial issues of public importance, and to do so in a fair manner without editorial input from advertisers.

But after the FCC stopped the Fairness Doctrine under Reagan in 1987, broadcast corporations stopped having to worry about broadcasting in the public interest.

Because the main way that stations "programmed in the public interest" was by producing news, real, actual, non-infotainment news, once Reagan lifted that requirement, the news divisions of the various networks came under the sway of ratings and profits.

News was no longer the cost of keeping your broadcast license, instead, it became an opportunity to make more money with increasingly dumbed down and salacious reporting.

Perhaps coincidentally, just a few months after the FCC did away with the Fairness Doctrine, Rush Limbaugh launched his show, and in the years following, conservative-owned corporations put commentators like Sean Hannity and Michael Savage on stations nationwide, so that listeners could tune in to right wing hate radio from pretty much anywhere in the country at any time of the day or night.

Read more here.

-Thom

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... The Brainwashing of My Dad (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

    

Tuesday's Daily Stack 

Article: "Hillary Clinton on the Supreme Court and Citizens United".

Article: "Al Gore at Hampshire College: Global warming is real and needs to be addressed now" by Diane Lederman, April 27, 2012.

Speech: "Read Obama's speech on press, politics at Syracuse University event (video)", March 28, 2016.

Article: "Pinocchio (2014 TV series)" by Wikipedia.

Book: Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer

Article: "L.A. Times cuts off climate-change deniers" by Danielle Elliot, October 10, 2013.

Article: "Trump campaign manager Lewandowski charged with battery" by CNBC.

Article: "No NY Debate, says Clinton Campaign, Until Sanders Changes His 'Tone'" by Jon Queally, Deirdre Fulton.

Video: Extended interview with Susan Sarandon.

Case: "Buckley v. Valeo", 1976.

Case: "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission" (2010).

Case: "McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission", 2014.

Case: "Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific Railroad", 1886.

Article: "The Powell Memo or Powell Manifesto".

Book: "The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America--and What We Can Do to Stop It" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Velocity of money" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Holy Shit the Arizona House has gone nuts" by Tsiyu.

Article: "Senators Allen and Leno Announce Bill to Put "Citizens United" Measure Back on Ballot" (California) by Senator Ben Allen (D - Santa Monica).

Book: Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy by Christopher Hayes.

Site: Drinking Liberally

Site: Eating Liberally

Site: Screening Liberally

Site: Drinking Liberally: Huntington Beach

 

Talk Media News Segment:
- Luke Vargas 

Article: "Security laws usher in new era for pacifist Japan" by Ayako Mie.

Event: 19 to 21 April 2016: UN HQ NYC"Special Session of the General Assembly on the world drug problem".

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman 

Article: "Quick Morning News - Sanders to Clinton: New York debate / FBI to interview Clinton? / Pakistan: 70+ dead in attack - March 28, 2016" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "Quick Morning News - Egypt plane hijacked / US Capitol shooting: "Prophet of God" / Clinton rips GOP: SCOTUS - March 29, 2016" by Victoria Jones.

Hour Three: Democracy Awakening
- Rob Weissman, Public Citizen 

Event: April 16-18 2016 DC: "Democracy Awakening".

Site: Common Cause.

Site: People For the American Way (PFAW).

Site: Sierra Club.

Site: Greenpeace USA.

Site: Friends of the Earth.

Site: Food and Water Watch.

Site: AFL-CIO.

Site: Communications Workers of America.

Site: National Nurses United (NNU).

Quote: "It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it's just an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery being at the essence of getting the nominations for president or elected president. And the same thing applies to governors and U.S. senators and Congress members. So now we've just seen a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors who want and expect and sometimes get favors for themselves after the election's over'." - President Jimmy Carter on unlimited money in politics on the Thom Hartmann Program, 28 July 2015.

 

Article: "Trump Most Acceptable Candidate to GOP; Clinton Leads Comfortably" by Public Policy Polling.

Article: "Chuck Grassley Is Keeping Details Of His Iowa Events Secret To Avoid Protesters" by Amanda Terkel.

Tweet: "it's why Sanders couldn't win Florida. Cuban- Colombian- and Venezuelan-Americans have total recall" by Joy Reid.

Article: "If socialism is evil, does that make Israel bad?" by bonos_rama.

Article: "Remote Irish island seeks Americans fleeing Donald Trump presidency" by Nick Bramhill.

Article: "Fairness Doctrine" by Wikipedia.

Law: "Sherman Antitrust Act", 1890.

Article: "Despite The Math, Bernie Sanders Has Already Won" by Domenico Montanaro.

Article: "13th Amendment",December 6, 1865 (end slavery)

Article: "15th Amendment" (right to vote), February 3, 1870

Article: "14th Amendment, July 9, 1868 (citizenship, representatives, public debt)

Article: "North Carolina passes bill blocking LGBT protections" by Sandhya Somashekhar.

 

Article: "What we're doing to the Earth has no parallel in 66 million years, scientists say" by Chris Mooney.

Article: "Ice melt, sea level rise and superstorms: evidence from paleoclimate data, climate modeling, and modern observations that 2 �C global warming could be dangerous " by James Hansen et al.

Article: "General Mills Will Label GMOs on Products Nationwide" by Willy Blackmore.

Article: "In win for beekeepers, Minnesota links insecticide to damaged hives" by Josephine Marcotty.

Article: "'Red Alert': Great Barrier Reef Severe Bleaching Raised To Highest Threat Level" by Deirdre Fulton.

Article: "Solar Advocates Have Their Eyes On Low Income Communities" by Samantha Page.

 

Do you have all the info you need to vote for @BernieSanders? Find it here.

Wednesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET 

 

We'll have the latest news and information...everything you need to know to win the water cooler wars...

 

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

 

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"

 

And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...

Free excerpt, read book for free at Truthout, buy the book!

Thank you for being part of our ever growing community for News, Debate and Opinion on the Thom Hartmann Program.

 

Click here to subscribe to the Thom Hartmann Newsletter.
 

Sincerely,

Please support the Hunter School, a unique therapeutic boarding school for young children diagnosed with ADHD, Anxiety, Sensory, Mood and related conditions...