During the first century and a half of this republic's existence, nobody really expected the press to be fair. Papers were mostly shrill, scurrilous and partisan. In the Hearst press, Roosevelt's New Deal was constantly referred to, not only on the editorial page but in the news columns, as the "raw deal." Despite this repeated hammering, readers kept re-electing Franklin D. Roosevelt anyway. Roosevelt has since won his revenge. It's called the Fairness Doctrine.
At first it applied only to radio, then to television, both of which came under Government regulation on the grounds that channels were scarce and airwaves crowded....