If you’re anything like me, you’re somewhere between disappointed and enraged at the state of the American news media today. The right-wing media spreads lies (and gets caught doing it, as in the whopping settlement that Fox News had to pay to a voting systems company). Meanwhile, the mainstream media fails us as it prioritizes demands for corporate profit over the public’s best interests, and constantly engages in performative neutrality so as not to offend anyone.
But what can be done? Is government regulation an option, given the importance of free speech and press rights? Today’s podcast is with an expert in media regulation — Philip M. Napoli, a distinguished professor at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy who also directs Duke’s DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy.
I’m happy to report that Phil and I are team-teaching a course at Duke this fall — starting next week! — called “Can Journalism Save Democracy?” That, of course, also happens to be the overall focus of my American Crisis podcast here on Substack. As we await the first meeting on Tuesday with 26 undergraduates (many of whom are public-policy, rather than journalism, students), Phil and I had a chance to chat about a number of issues plaguing journalism today.
I hope you’ll enjoy listening to our conversation, which touches on the now defunct Fairness Doctrine, how to deal with lies and disinformation, and whether there is any hope of restraining the harm done by Fox News.
Thanks so much for subscribing to American Crisis, which now has well over 5,000 subscribers. If you would like to help support my pro-democracy journalism and become part of the media-watchdog community I’m building here, you can become a paid subscriber at margaretsullivan.substack.com; the cost is $8 a month or $50 for the year. This will give you full access to all my media-criticism posts, to discussion threads and to the podcast, including all bonus episodes. Please let me know your thoughts about these subjects in the comments.
If you’d like to dig deeper into Phil Napoli’s excellent work, here are some examples:
Misinformation fueled the Jan. 6 riots. A Biden Commission could chart a path forward. (The Hill, with Bill Adair)
Lessons for Social Media from the Fairness Doctrine. (Columbia Journalism Review)
His 2019 book, Social Media and the Public Interest: Media Regulation in the Disinformation Age
American Crisis, Episode 7: Phil Napoli on the Fairness Doctrine and Fox News