Political Razz ma Tazz

   Politicians lie.

   So what else is news?

   Responsible journalism has a duty to print what a conservative politician says as well as opponent's  views.

   Sometimes, one set of views includes just a few lies, while the other set has none, or a bunch more. So is it journalism's duty to report both sets, without any guide as to which set is true? That suggests readers should decide.

   Or is it journalism's duty to specify who lies and who is truthful?

   Is a puzzlement, as the king of Siam would say.

   There was a time when broadcasters were required to transmit what political leaders said, and were forbidden to present their own opinions, much less whether someone was lying, on the fear of losing their broadcast license

   However, that changed soon after cable television came on the scene. And since their programming was delivered via cable, and not broadcast, there was no danger of losing their broadcast license.

   Why not? Simply because they didn't have one. Broadcast licenses were granted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and generally, any other licenses were granted by individual states.

   Besides, requiring businesses to focus on one aspect of an issue and to denigrate others amounts to control of the news media. And that would be a clear violation of the First Amendment's guarantee of press freedom.

   So challenging news media's decisions as to which stories to carry and how to carry them is not likely. Although some politicians  talk about it. The odd thing is that the very targets of the attack carry reports of the criticism in detail.

   In great detail.

   Many times.

   And since they can respond with their own views as well as continued criticism of the political attacks, one has only a brief guess as to who gets more broadcast time.

   Even so, network broadcast TV news channel programs remain relatively neutral in their coverage of these attacks on journalistic freedom.

   Cable television people have the right to their opinions, both right and left, conservative and liberal.

   If you have any doubt, tune in to the Fox network programs, as well as MSNBC or CNN.