Tuesday, February 15, 2011

FCC Chairman Wants to Strangle Fox News and Free Speech


FCC Chairman Michael Copps believes it’s time for the federal government to step in and write the rules for journalism. The Chicago Messiah and his legion of Czars would be pleased to put a gag order on Fox News, talk radio and the internet. The Hill reports the following:


FCC's Copps calls on agency to address decline of 'real journalism'


By Sara Jerome - 02/15/11 02:05 PM ET


Federal Communications Commissioner Michael Copps made a case for a government hand in media policy in a speech to the FCBA on Tuesday.


"The commission can act now. It should have acted on the media before now. I am disappointed that it has not," he said.


The decline of "real journalism" justifies federal involvement, according to Copps. "The news is suffering from a bad case of substance abuse," he said.


The Democratic commissioner pointed to Fox News' Bernie Goldberg and Bill O'Reilly as examples of the problem with today's media landscape, saying the pair has taken his own words out of context.


"What you and I are getting these days is too much opinion based on opinion and too little news based on fact," Copps said.


The key going forward, according to Copps, is "making sure there is media about, and originating from, the local communities a station serves."


Congress has given the FCC power to get involved in the Communications Acts, according to Copps. It may want to give the agency more power to promote media diversity and competition, he said.


The commissioner also reiterated his call for a "Public Value Test" as part of the broadcasting license renewal, a process controlled by the FCC.

Hugo Chavez, the Iranian Mullahs, Putin and all the other tyrants in the world are smiling right about now.

Source: http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/144255-copps-calls-on-fcc-to-act-on-media-issues

H/T: Weasel Zippers

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for posting! This is an alarming trend that must be reversed as soon as humanly possible. Keep up the good work!