Posted on 12/07/2010 2:40:25 AM PST by Scanian
The First Amendment forbids Congress from infringing on Americans' right to free speech. But the Federal Communications Commission is not Congress. And Michael Copps, one of four FCC commissioners reporting to Chairman Julius Genachowski, seems intent on ignoring that pesky part of the First Amendment about "abridging the freedom of speech" when that speech is sent out over the airwaves.
In two American Thinker articles earlier this year, I discussed possible FCC attempts to force progressive programming into broadcast media. Now, in addition to a nasty Christmas present that Genachowski wants to give Americans on December 21 (Net Neutrality), Copps wants government to control private-sector broadcast content.
In a December 2 speech, Copps proposed that the FCC conduct a "public value test" of commercial broadcast stations.
"If a station passes the Public Value Test, it of course keeps the license it has earned to use the people's airwaves. If not, it goes on probation for a year, renewable for an additional year if it demonstrates measurable progress. If the station fails again, give the license to someone who will use it to serve the public interest."
Stations that don't comply with FCC demands would lose their licenses to organizations willing to do the agency's bidding.
The "Public Value Test" didn't fly extemporaneously from Copps's lips. Since Barack Obama became president, there have been growing noises about reinstituting the effects of the repealed Fairness Doctrine without calling any new regulation by that name. Progressives long to stop the resurgence of traditional American values that has taken place after two years of economy-killing, freedom-robbing Obama rule. Republicans blew out Democrats in the midterm election. Lefties are in quite a state, desperate to shut down opposition speech.
If Genachowski and this administration is dumb enough to take talk radio off the air there will be much tar and feathers.
They really don't want to rattle that ferret cage!
and every nappy headed child should have free internet access
The lefties have become control-freaks.
They are not LIBERAL, they are Anti-Liberal. imho
> If Genachowski and this administration is dumb enough to
> take talk radio off the air there will be much tar and
> feathers.
I doubt it.
Our nation’s founders pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to mount armed resistance against a much lesser tyranny.
Everybody will go back to watching trash TV and reading trash pulp magazines and forget about Beck and Limbaugh.
That has been the outcome of every vile encroachment I can remember, with few rebellions at the ballot box.
Soon it will be too late.
Here, forget “Dancing with the Stars” for one night and watch this instead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIeics8jHUY
They are fascists.
From a previous thread on the same subject:
What a gift to conservatives and the GOP. We have a once in a generation opportunity to capture the mushy middle using GEN X & Y by preserving Internet freedom.
I hope Boehner uses both edges of the sword on this one:
1. Very publicly undo the meddling and declare the Internet off limits while he’s Speaker
2. Defund the FCC and replace it with a market mechanism.
The hits keep on coming. If we play it right we’ll hold the House and capture the Senate in 2012...and hold them for 40 years!
They always have been. The name ‘liberal’ is just a cover for their real operation - statism.
And Slavery is Liberty...it’s 1984 all the way.
What’s in a name?
Time to privatize the airwaves.
Delete the FCC and treat the airwaves like we do condos or minerals - commodities to be brokered, bartered and sold.
What’s the FCCs job anyway, but enforcing the political agenda of their masters anyway.
Who defines what is of value to the public anyway? I don't suppose too many people would deny that things like weather reports are of value to the public, but if you are, say, a convinced Christian the gospel is of immense value to the public. If you are a mathematician, numeracy is of immense value to the public. If you are Julian Assange telling everyone everything without check or interpretation is of immense value to the public.
I don't want some Government functionary, of any political stripe, telling me what is good for me to hear.
They’ll do exactly what Chairman Zer0 tells them to do.
And he is a loose cannon.
After observing his tax performance last night, I’d guess he’ll use the FCC threat to play “Let’s Make a Deal” with the Pubbies. And get all wee-wee’d up when it doesn’t give him exactly what he wants.
What to do? If the FCC is a budget line item, tell 0 that it will be drastically cut by the new House if it messes with talk radio or web sites. The power of the purse is what the Rpublicans have at their disposal and they should use it FULLY to make the lefties understand that it’s hard to make a revolution with no money.
I wonder if the Obamanoids have anticipated a lot of de-funding from the GOP which is why a large chuck of Porkulus money has been held back.
Curious buggers..bound and determined to find out if that Second Amendment thingy really does mean what it says...aren’t they?
The field does not just travel through "air" but also the emptiness of space.
I like to think the airwaves belong to we the people. We the people should have the ability to listen or watch what we chose and not what some FCC clown wants us to.
Something wrong here, given the immense number of news and opinion outlets that let the individual choose.
It’s almost as though King George ruled that Thomas Paine must permit the King a few paragraphs in each pamphlet.
Just think how far this could go. Vegan restaurants forced to offer meat dishes, Ford dealerships forced to inventory GM products, Unitarian churches forced to include a bit of the mass in front of a crucifix. The possibilities are endless.
There’s always ways around this. You could move your talk radio operation to Canada, or Mexico(that would drive the libs batty!). Or do the old pirate radio trick that the Brits did. Move the radio station onto a ship and park it outide the 12 mile limit (and therefore US jurisdiction).
A lot of them have quit using the term 'liberal' and started using the term 'progressive' because they realized how toxic the word liberal has become. They got away with that only because the illiterate mass of fools known as the American sheeple don't know any history. Vladimir Lenin and his merry band of Bolsheviks used the same term 'progressive' to describe their movement. And we all know how well that turned out.
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