Can we require guest commentators on news networks to disclose their political affiliations and bias?

Political literacy is low in the US. Even public high schools duck teaching real political science. Right wing spin tanks rely on low information voters to make cheap tricks possible. Many voters simply don’t know what goes on the political left and right.

When voters don’t know left and right, the Fascist strategy is possible. The traditional Fascist (and Libertarian) trick is for a candidate to appeal to the left and right at the same time, hope that voters don’t see the contradiction, get elected, and then dump everything they promised to the left.

Hitler and Mussolini did it that way. It worked because they could talk like a Socialist when speaking to factory workers and talk like a Fascist when talking to bankers. Modern social media should make the old trick impossible, but there are still ways that right wing media can counter it.

Cell phone cameras give us the power to expose candidates giving different messages to different groups. Twitter is a great fact checker. The problem is with TV news shows. Guest commentators almost never say if they are a Democrat or a Republican. Members of congress show party affiliation, but you can’t tell a corporate Democrat from a Progressive or a neocon Republican from a more moderate Republican. (If there are any left.)

Think tanks are the worst offenders. People don’t know that The Heritage Foundation is super right wing. The might even introduce something like the Kato Foundation a “bipartisan.” Think tanks are not bipartisan. They are tax exempt and claim to be doing a public service. They use names full of platitudes that mean nothing and hide their political bias. They have names like “The foundation for truth justice and the American way.” (Superman. I’m 65.)

The 24 hour news phenomenon is a perfect opportunity to teach political literacy, but Republican owned media organizations want to be able to sell reverse mortgages, expensive prescription drugs, and private sector Medicare Advantage scams without performing any kind of public service.

The airways belong to us. Congress can mandate media producers to perform a public service just like they did when they required early media producers to air the news even when it was not profitable. We need to require media producers to run a banner under each spin doctor that declares them to be a Republican or a Democrat, the political orientation of the group they represent, their political voting history etc. How hard would it be to show a side card on the screen? When the guest is from The Kato think tank, people should not have to google it to see that it is right wing and founded by XYZ etc.

Let the guest design their own little bio card and let real journalists question the guest on it’s validity and fact check it. Put up links for people to see the bios on all the think tanks. Make candidates and guests disclose where their funding comes from. If a candidate takes money from a big oil PAC, they should have to disclose that before we hear their political argument the issues.

Before I go I want to pitch one for bringing back the fairness doctrine. Taking away the fairness doctrine and the equal time rule caused an explosion of right wing hate media starting with Rush Limbaugh. All of those little AM hate radio stations would close if we did that.

If you support the idea of making spin doctors disclose their political bias and funding sources, email congress. Do it for Truth, Justice, and the American Way.