FCC push to regulate news draws fire

[HydraBob]

thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/132195-fcc-proposal-to-regulate-news-draws-fire
youtube.com/watch?v=mzkATxFhcBY

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) pushed back on Monday against a contention by a Democratic FCC commissioner that the government should create new regulations to promote diversity in news programming.

Barton was reacting to a proposal made last week by FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, who in a speech suggested that broadcasters be subject to a new “public values test” every four years.

"I hope … that you do not mean to suggest that it is the job of the federal government, through the [FCC], to determine the content that is available for Americans to consume,” Barton wrote Monday in a letter to Copps.

Copps had suggested that the test would make a broadcaster’s license renewal contingent upon proof that they meet a prospective set of federal criteria.
…

Big brother thinks it knows what’s best for us to listen / watch. More Federal government interference and abridgment of the first amendment. This is just a power grab to suppress and shutdown any debate that is not establishment written. Gotta get a govment license for everything

 

[edwest2]

thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/132195-fcc-proposal-to-regulate-news-draws-fire
youtube.com/watch?v=mzkATxFhcBY

Big brother thinks it knows what’s best for us to listen / watch. More Federal government interference and abridgment of the first amendment. This is just a power grab to suppress and shutdown any debate that is not establishment written. Gotta get a govment license for everything

“power grab”

No, once you take away sports and the commercials, plus nonsense about celebrities, how much actual news do you get?

The government is not always the villain. When students can’t find the continent of Africa on a map and when viewers know more about the private lives of a few celebrities than about actual world events, I think the news media should be under greater scrutiny.

A stupid, uninformed population is easier to control.

Peace,
Ed

 

[jilly4ski]

Interesting. I just completed a paper on the now defunct “Fairness Doctrine.” I believe that it could not be reintroduced and survive a constitutional challenge. (Or even a regulatory challenge, they would have to prove that it was in the public interest).

This proposal I think creates even more issues. The news proposal is most disturbing. The Supreme court has given newspaper editors complete editorial discretion. If they are trying to regulate “news” content, they are going to run into free speech and free press issues. The FCC in their 1985 report and the order repealing the fairness doctrine in 1987 said that subjecting broadcasters to these rules was no longer in the public interest and could have constitutional problems.

 

[Nine_Two]

Maybe they should just pass a law that says all media have to push the position of whoever is president? It’ll make things much easier than all this freedom of the press nonsense.

 

[Whitacre_Girl]

thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/132195-fcc-proposal-to-regulate-news-draws-fire
youtube.com/watch?v=mzkATxFhcBY

Big brother thinks it knows what’s best for us to listen / watch. More Federal government interference and abridgment of the first amendment. This is just a power grab to suppress and shutdown any debate that is not establishment written. Gotta get a govment license for everything

sigh

Nothing shocks me anymore with the current state of affairs.

Seriously, why do they even have the constitution anymore? I’ve pretty much given up any hope that the document will ever again be at the center of American politics.

I’m also willing to be that this is a result of Al Sharpton’s pressure to get Rush off the air.

 

[markomalley]

Maybe they should just pass a law that says all media have to push the position of whoever is president? It’ll make things much easier than all this freedom of the press nonsense.

Agreed fully.

Of course, by their very nature, this would require the closure of all discussion forums on the Internet as well.

 

[Nine_Two]

Agreed fully.

Of course, by their very nature, this would require the closure of all discussion forums on the Internet as well.

That’s the price you pay for living in a tightly controlled country. If you don’t like it move elsewhere.

 

[Scott_Lafrance]

That’s the price you pay for living in a tightly controlled country. If you don’t like it move elsewhere.

Looking into it. New Zealand looks promising, as does Costa Rica.