Letters to the Editor: To help fight QAnon disinformation, bring back the fairness doctrine

To the editor: Cults like QAnon achieve adherents by gradually gaining control over their information sources, constraining the stories they see or hear. They amplify initial doubt or mistrust to the point that followers self-censor their news sources.

Under the 1st Amendment we can’t block the messages, but perhaps we can regulate the channels.

In the days when America was great, we had the FCC fairness doctrine to ensure that parties who believed they had been misrepresented had a chance to respond in the same venue. We naively abandoned the fairness doctrine in the earliest days of techno-libertarian optimism. I think it is time to update for the digital presence of streaming and social media and bring it back.

Jim Hess, Irvine

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To the editor: Many of the Q conspiracy scenarios focus on fleeting movements or expressions of public figures who are followed by cameras for every moment of their waking hours. If a few Q-followers were to permit similar nonstop capture of their daily routines, snippets could easily be extracted to support purportedly dark interpretations of their actions or motives.

Perhaps they might then begin to understand that they are viewing reality through a grossly unrealistic lens.

Mark Steinberg, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Until the U.S. government discloses what it knows from its research into Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (commonly known as UFOs) this coming June, as was mandated in the current COVID relief package, people will continue to speculate about Reptilians, baby eaters and other exotic theories.

Distrust of government secrecy about Pentagon “black money” sites and a belief that governmental and Pentagon leaders have covered up UFOs for years have led many honest people to seek alternate sources of “truth.”

Until the June disclosures (hopefully unredacted), seemingly crazy speculations are unavoidable.

As John Lennon said, “Gimme some truth.”

Lee Wohlfert, Laguna Niguel