ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Fairness Doctrine

The Fairness Doctrine was a rule created by the United States government that required radio and television stations to present both sides of a controversial issue. This means that if a news program talked about a topic like politics or a big decision that affects people, they had to give equal time to all the different viewpoints on the topic.

The idea behind the Fairness Doctrine was to make sure that people got to hear and understand different opinions, so that they could make up their own minds about what they believed. This helped to make sure that people were well-informed about important issues, and that they had a chance to hear all sides of the story before making up their mind.

However, the Fairness Doctrine was eventually eliminated in 1987, because some people felt that it limited freedom of speech and was no longer necessary. Nowadays, news programs and radio talk shows still try to be fair and balanced with their coverage of controversial topics, but they don't have to follow the old Fairness Doctrine rules anymore.