What's so special about the First Amendment, anyway? The Tenth is treated as a dead letter.
Why shouldn't the First be?[U]nder the Obama administration, the Federal Communications Commission is planning to send government contractors into the nation's newsrooms to determine whether journalists are producing articles, television reports, Internet content, and commentary that meets the public's "critical information needs." Those "needs" will be defined by the administration, and news outlets that do not comply with the government's standards could face an uncertain future. It's hard to imagine a project more at odds with the First Amendment.
The initiative, known around the agency as "the CIN Study" (pronounced "sin"), is a bit of a mystery even to insiders. "This has never been put to an FCC vote, it was just announced," says Ajit Pai, one of the FCC's five commissioners (and one of its two Republicans).
That's funny, "sin." Everybody remember how that Alinsky book was formally dedicated to Lucifer? Ha, ha, ha. What a great joke.
Participation in the Critical Information Needs study is voluntary—in theory. Unlike the opinion surveys that Americans see on a daily basis and either answer or not, as they wish, the FCC's queries may be hard for the broadcasters to ignore. They would be out of business without an FCC license, which must be renewed every eight years.
16 comments:
They think they can lie their way out of anything, using propaganda and dis- information- what they fail to understand is that they can lie, but they can't cover up the results of the lie- truth has a reality all it's own.
We'll find out a lot by how the news media react. I'm entirely unsympathetic to the "plight" of the interviewees and the "threat" of their licenses held by the interviewers. Threats are effective only when the threatened take them seriously. It is the threatened alone who give threats power.
Surrendering to the threat is cowardice. What will the FCC do if all of the broadcast media (which are the only ones over which the FCC has licensing authority; the FCC is completely out of bounds in assaulting the print media) refuse to comply? The media know this.
But now the lapdogs are finding the folly of their timidity.
Eric Hines
So, let's see, Xerxes' and his minions not only have been spying on them for many years, but also committed perjury in order to get a warrant to tap someone in the media's phone lines and now? they're upset because he's "altering the deal further..."?
And they want sympathy from those of us whom they've spent the last 2+ decades openly calling ignorant, racist, gun-totin', Bible-clinging, knuckle-draggin' mental retards that should be retroactively aborted?
I'm reminded of the story (parable?) of the German man in Nazi Germany who watches all his disparate neighbors be taken away, but says nothing because he was not one of *them*.
Then they came for him, and there was no one left to speak at all.
The enemedia thinks as the German man. If they don't awaken soon, they may find none who will stand in their defense. That will be a sad day in America as one of the pillars for maintaining our freedoms is brought to it's knees.
A smart person would welcome the media with open arms, a smile, and a minor comment like, "What took you so long?"
I'd give them some sympathy, and I'd be happy to stand with them, and ask the FCC "Just what part of Congress shall make no law" don't you understand?"
One reason for doing so, its you can then turn to them and say, "Do you see now that we were telling you the truth? These people really are out of line, and they have no respect for any of our laws. They've called us liars and racists, but do you see now that we are neither, and that you have been wrong about our legitimate, real concerns about this lawless administration?
Valerie
...a sad day in America as one of the pillars for maintaining our freedoms is brought to it's knees.
Sad, sure. But not, of necessity, fateful. One thing that's too often missed, not only by an NLMSM that's under Federal government attack, but by too many honest Americans, too: the reason they're NL is that there are too many other media with which we get our information and opinions and within which we discuss that information and those opinions.
As to turn to them and say, "Do you see now that we were telling you the truth?, sure, that'd feel pretty good. But with them largely irrelevant, that feel-good is about all the value there'd be. I don't need to tell them, "I told you so." I don't need them to come along. I've moved too far along already. They're not even useful idiots anymore, except as examples of past folly in our history books.
Other media? Here is one.
I'd like to see them try to stick an apparatchik into a blog.
Eric Hines
Just for clarity, the "blog administrator" was me, removing my own comment, which was poorly formed. Apparently, Google thinks I'm an administrator.
Eric Hines
While I agree with your premise of new media blowing enemedia's position on the podium away, many of the voting bloc- the seniors - that really has the power to swing the pendulum back in a conservative direction get their information still from the enemedia on tv and in print.
Mr. Hines:
You (and everyone else here with posting rights) are indeed an administrator. I generally always grant those powers, in part because I appreciate the help deleting spam comments.
What is "NL"? "Neo-Liberal?" "No Longer?" Something else?
NLMSM==No Longer MainStream Media
DL: the senior voting bloc I know are pretty well plugged in. I'm not sure we're a monolith, either.
Eric Hines
There are some, Mr. Hines who are, but there is a very large group of the elderly that are not. They still fuel the subscription rates for small town newspapers and tv stations.
Apparently, if the item I read is correct, the FCC has already dropped the idea.
Some adults must have talked the kiddies.
[T]he FCC has already dropped the idea.
You really believe this? I'm not convinced they simply haven't decided not to hire a private contractor to do it, and have internalized the task, instead. It'll be stealthier, too, now that they know which members of the media--both NLMSM and N(ew)MSM--will squawk and which ones will meekly stand by.
Just like the unified license plate database business now will not go to a private contractor. But it hasn't gone away; it's just gone sub rosa. Keep in mind, this administration makes the Boss Tweed operation look like a Baptist choir.
I heard on the news today, also, that the FCC had planned to squirrel away the raw data, write their...report...and after seven years destroy the data. I hope that was just an apocalyptic item.
On further review, re an early comment: I appreciate the help deleting spam comments. I appreciate the thought, but I can't imagine I'd ever scrub someone else's blog.
Eric Hines
Suit yourself. But if you see a comment that was obviously left by a SPAMbot, it won't break my heart if you stick a knife in it.
E Hines,
You have a point. The FCC has been quiescent of late, and may be looking for ways to justify its mission. This always turns out badly, like it has done with the EPA since America essentially met its clean air and water goals.
Valerie
It takes a near death experience to get a leftist to actually think- it is a religion, not a political theory.
Post a Comment