Ralph welcomes back MIT professor, Nicholas Ashford, who to stem the tide of lies and misinformation amplified by broadcast media, pitches a new Fairness Doctrine for the 21st Century. And we are also joined by Professor Lonnie T. Brown and documentary filmmaker, Joseph Stillman, who pay tribute to the memory of the late Ramsey Clark.
Nicholas Ashford is Professor of Technology & Policy, and the Director of the Technology & Law Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has published numerous books, several hundred articles in peer-reviewed journals and law reviews, and an op-ed in the New York Times entitled Not on Facebook? You’re Still Likely Being Fed Misinformation.
“Just giving unequally meritorious arguments equal space is not really keeping in the spirit of the Fairness Doctrine. You have to not only present meritorious arguments, but you have to offer criticism. Not just simply display opposing views.”
Nicholas Ashford, author of Not on Facebook? You’re Still Likely Being Fed Misinformation.
“[Most media networks] don’t embarrass somebody who has a point of view. You have to go as far as embarrassing somebody who tells exaggerations, omissions of fact, omissions of view. People would be afraid to be on your interview schedule if you really took people to task. But that’s what we have to change.”
Nicholas Ashford, author of Not on Facebook? You’re Still Likely Being Fed Misinformation.
I remember very clearly…being at the FCC the day the FCC announced the revocation of the Fairness Doctrine. And we didn’t really fully realize the damage. It was clearly the ‘get out of self-restraint card’ for all the right-wing media.”
Ralph Nader
Lonnie T. Brown Jr. is the Chair of Legal Ethics and Professionalism at the University of Georgia School of Law. He teaches courses in civil procedure, the law and ethics of lawyering, ethics in litigation, and he is the author of Defending the Public’s Enemy: The Life and Legacy of Ramsey Clark.
“In dealing with people like J Edgar Hoover in particular, [Ramsey Clark] became very skeptical of the way the government handled things. And he saw that things that were being portrayed to the public weren’t necessarily true. And I think that informed a lot of his representations, a lot of his humanitarian efforts, his visits to Vietnam and to other countries that were viewed as enemies of the United States.”
Lonnie T. Brown, author of Defending the Public’s Enemy: The Life and Legacy of Ramsey Clark
Joseph C. Stillman is an Emmy winning, Academy Award nominated filmmaker, and the director of the documentary Citizen Clark… A Life of Principle.
“I think if there’s a word to describe [Ramsey Clark], he was a fearless individual who did not care what people said; was compelled to tell the truth at any cost; and certainly put himself in numerous situations that were dangerous to his life, in order to bring those facts forward. To tell those truths.”
Joseph C. Stillman, director of Citizen Clark
We Need a New Fairness Doctrine