This article considers the suspension of the Fairness Doctrine in the USA and the legal instatement of the professional practice of impartiality in Britain as examples of two very different approaches to the regulation of broadcasting. These developments are located within the context of the shifts and changes of the post-Cold War period and are considered in terms of the highly differentiated unfolding of the bourgeois revolution in these two countries. It is also suggested that the practices of impartiality on the one hand, and of broadcaster advocacy or editorializing on the other, may be key factors for the outcome of a democratic process which seeks to identify the public interest and to foster the expression of public opinion.
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