News in the 20th century was curated and delivered by three networks dependent on securing their exclusive licenses to transmit with the Federal Communications Commission, a Washington D C central authority requiring its version of decency and the truth. Today there are many networks the majority of which are transmitted through cable and thereby outside the purview of the FCC. And then there is Facebook, a recent phenomena with its micro networks free to go astray from any sense of decency or truthfulness. In theory a curated top down presentation of news would not have allowed the fake news of McCarthyism and the indecency of the House on un-American Activities, but it did. On the other hand in the 1780’s with an open press full of anonymous mudslinging our forefathers managed to devise and ratify our Constitution, one with a Bill of Rights listing freedom of speech as the very first right.
