Freepmail me if you want to join my fairness doctrine ping list.
Posted on 05/15/2009 7:52:31 PM PDT by Delacon
A socialist-oriented “media reform” group with intimate ties to the Obama Administration and George Soros is calling for new federal programs and the spending of tens of billions of dollars to keep journalists employed at liberal media outlets or at new “public media.”
The group, which calls itself Free Press, is urging “an alternative media infrastructure, one that is insulated from the commercial pressures that brought us to our current crisis.” However, speakers at this week's Free Press "summit" had nothing to say about the well-documented liberal bias that has contributed to the decline in readers and viewers for traditional media outlets and has enabled the rise of the Fox News Channel, conservative talk radio, and the Internet. Instead, Josh Silver of the Free Press attacked the “bellowing ideologues” on the air and declared that “The entire dial is empty of local news in many communities.”
This was a tip-off that, in order to take conservative radio hosts off the air, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will be flooded with complaints that “local news” has been shortchanged by stations airing conservative personalities with national programs such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and Michael Savage. Free Press, whose June 2008 “media reform” conference in Minneapolis turned into a virtual Obama for President campaign rally, is in a position to provide those complaints to the FCC. It claims nearly half-a-million supporters and a staff of 30, mostly in Washington, D.C.
As part of the proposed new “media infrastructure,” Free Press is calling for a $50-billion “Public Media Trust Fund” to underwrite the creation of new jobs for journalists and the use of the existing federal AmeriCorps program “to include journalistic activities as part of its mission” in the form of “journalism positions” and “journalism projects.” AmeriCorps is a federally-funded national and community service agency.
The group is also urging a direct federal bailout of liberal media institutions, declaring that “The Department of Labor could design a program aimed at keeping reporters employed at existing news organizations or at new outlets.” Free Press explains, “If the government were to subsidize 5,000 reporters at $50,000 per year, the cost would be $250 million annually, a relatively modest sum given the billions coming out of Washington.”
In addition to the $50-billion “Public Media Trust Fund,” another one of the proposals from the Free Press group is a $50-million “government-seeded innovation fund for journalism,” described by Craig Aaron of Free Press as “a taxpayer-supported venture capital firm that invests in new journalism models.”
The socialist nature of the proposals should not be surprising. Aaron is one of two Free Press staffers who have been employed by the socialist magazine In These Times and previously worked at Ralph Nader’s Congress Watch. The group’s policy director, Ben Scott, has been an aide to Senator Bernie Sanders, an openly declared socialist who has criticized the media for covering both sides of the global warming debate. Another Free Press staffer was an activist with Planned Parenthood.
All of the controversial recommendations, which are certain to find a sympathetic ear in the Obama Administration, are included in the new 185-page book, Changing Media: Public Interest Policies for the Digital Age, officially released in Washington on Thursday, May 14, at the Free Press summit held at the Newseum, a museum dedicated to the journalism profession. Several hundred people showed up in a cramped conference room that one speaker laughingly described as “cozy.”
Although Free Press didn’t want to examine the problem of liberal bias contributing to the decline of traditional media, the Newseum’s fifth floor, the News History Gallery, includes a film about liberal media bias.
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which is already subsidized by the U.S. taxpayer through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (which itself gets $400 million a year in federal payments), wasn’t good enough for acting Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Michael Copps, who delivered a keynote speech.
He declared that we need a PBSS — “a Public Broadcasting System on Steroids” — based on the extraction of more dollars from hard-pressed American taxpayers. “That can’t be done on the cheap, and we’ll hear laments that there’s not a lot of extra cash floating around these days,” Copps said. “But other nations find ways to support such things.”
He added that “…if things go well, we may be launched on an era of reform to match what the Progressives and New Dealers of the last century gave us. What a shining, beckoning opportunity we have.”
Copps ruled out the FCC bringing back the so-called Fairness Doctrine, which enabled bureaucrats during the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations to mute or silence on-air conservative personalities. “The Fairness Doctrine is long gone and it’s not coming back — as much as some conspiracy theorists see it lurking behind every corner,” he said. However, he did say that the FCC would force broadcasters to sell media properties to approved women and minority groups. He called this “equal opportunity” and “diversity.”
At the same time, Copps said that the FCC, which will become an “agent of change,” will have “to get serious about defining broadcasters’ public interest obligations and reinvigorating our license renewal process.” He said broadcasters need to be held to “clear standards that can be fairly but vigorously enforced” and should have to renew their licenses every three years, instead of every eight.
Under such a scheme, local liberal and “progressive” groups could thwart a license renewal by claiming that a local radio station was airing too much conservative programming.
In this context of “saving journalism,” as Free Press described it, the Senate Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet held a May 6 “Future of Journalism” congressional hearing featuring testimony from Maryland Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, who has introduced a “Newspaper Revitalization Act” to rescue failing liberal papers by letting them operate as non-profits.
The hearing was said to be the brainchild of Senator John Kerry, the chairman of the subcommittee.
One of those failing papers, the Boston Globe, is owned by the New York Times and regularly endorses Kerry’s campaigns and ideas. Ironically, however, another factor in the liberal media decline, and in the Globe’s demise in particular, has been the unreasonable demands of liberal labor unions which normally endorse and finance the campaigns of Democrats for office.
Left unsaid at the Free Press summit was the fact that direct federal payments to these papers might enable these unions to avoid taking pay or benefit cuts. Indeed, officials of Free Press said they didn’t think the Cardin bill goes far enough and they want tens of billions of dollars in direct subsidies and payments from the federal government to the liberal media.
Free Press has some impressive financial support of its own, having been lavishly funded in the past to the tune of millions of dollars from foundations associated with George Soros and Bill Moyers. This summit, however, was financially sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, an entity with $2.3 billion in assets.
Alberto Ibarguen, president of the Knight Foundation, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the board of ProPublica, one of the new media ventures of the type that seemed to be in favor at the Free Press summit.
However, ProPublica, which claims to be “an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest,” has been embarrassed by revelations that one of its major funders is a foundation associated with billionaire Democratic Party liberals Herb and Marion Sandler, who have been accused of having a hand in the financial crisis. The official mission of the Sandler Foundation includes being “a catalyst to strengthen the progressive infrastructure” in support of Democratic Party causes.
The Capital Research Center has published a major analysis of ProPublica, which has collaborated with news organizations such as the Washington Post, noting that it churns out “left-wing hit pieces,” such as an attack on Alaska Governor and 2008 Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin during the campaign.
While making demands for more federal money, another topic at the Free Press summit was how to divvy up the $7.2 billion that was authorized in the federal economic “stimulus” legislation to expand access to the Internet. The legislation makes the funds available to private and left-wing non-profit entities. There is no way of knowing at this point how much of this could be funneled into the coffers of “progressive” groups, including the Free Press itself.
Demonstrating its close ties to the Obama Administration, one of the featured speakers was Susan Crawford of President Obama’s National Economic Council. She was introduced by Timothy Wu, chairman of the Free Press board and an advocate of more federal regulation of the media. A Columbia Law School Professor and member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Wu claims the U.S. Constitution is flawed because the founders did not anticipate the problem of “the abuse of private power.” He coined the term “net neutrality,” an attempt to justify federal control of the Internet in the name of guaranteeing equal access to it.
While several speakers paid lip service to the First Amendment, there was no serious discussion as to how freedom of the press could be maintained in the face of mounting federal involvement in the journalism profession. One has to conclude, therefore, that the natural result of having new federal money and sponsorship would be that journalists would toe the “progressive” line, as they already do at public radio and TV, despite legal obligations of fairness and balance.
Another speaker, Vivian Schiller, the new President of National Public Radio (NPR), was already comfortable with federal funding and could use more. NPR, which claims an audience of 27 million Americans through 860 public radio stations, continues to get federal money through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. However, she said NPR is also facing a financial crisis because of a reduction in corporate underwriting and investment income.
Schiller recently came to NPR from the New York Times Company, another failing liberal media enterprise, where she served as senior vice president and general manager of NYTimes.com
ping
they are going to publish the Obamanation’s version of the Volkischer Beobachter..
Obama owes it to them. There’s only so long one can rely on free agitprop.
Nice historical ref. Don’t we have all good things Obama all the time already?
What Zero would really like is that every home has the same kind of radio that is in every North Korean household. Tuned only to the state controlled station praising “dear leader”, and can never be turned off.
Except during the power failures thanks to the new energy policies.
Not no but H*LL NO! The bailouts have to stop somewhere and this is definately somewhere!
In other words a govt. subsidized liberal propaganda machine. No G-D way!
Liberal media was "brought to its current crisis" by being, well, too liberal. Not only has the liberal MSPM alienated conservatives, they have alienated moderates. They have even managed to alienate enlightened liberals. Even liberals want news, want the facts. While it may be gratifying to see their ideological foes (us conservatives) get regularly blasted in the MSPM... Eventually they wake up to the fact that, well, they don't have any facts. The MSPM has failed them just as much as everyone else.
When all we get is spin - oriented towards either/any extreme, no-one really benefits. This kind of behaviour should-not and cannot be rewarded. The MSPM absolutely needs to fail and cease to exist in its current form. It is in everyone's best interests.
Who knows, some day a MSPM "reporter" may even be able to look in the mirror without feeling shame and failure...
This stuff just writes itself.
We need a rewrite of spike jones’ “In Der Fuhrer’s face”..
How about we get someone in Congress to propose a TAX!
A TAX on NEWSPRINT!
Whereas the production of newspapers causes trees to be cut down, hauled by polluting trucks to polluting paper mills, and hauled from paper mills to publishers and
Whereas the production of newspapers requires toxic ink and solvents and energy wasting machinery and
Whereas the distribution of newspapers requires the use of dirty internal combustion engines and
Whereas a large portion of every landfill is used for discarded newspapers,
Therefore:
Be it resolved that a Newsprint tax, of $1,000.00 per pound, be charged to EVERY newspaper with a daily subscription, within the United States!
________________________________________
We should get some Republican to propose THIS as an amendment to any “cap and trade” or “carbon tax” proposal that comes up!
Maybe we can make it like “Cap and Trade” and use the revenue generated, from this tax on dirty dinosaur newspapers, to subsidize a tax credit for home computers and digital devices?
Or, we could use the money to subsidize talk radio! Well, those guys really don’t need any help!
Why can’t the liberals afford to support the liberal press without government help? I never hear any complaints from conservative people about problems with their newpapers, TV etc.? I don’t hear them asking for government assistance.
If the MSM craps out, there should be a savings at all levels of government as schools of journalism crash in the wake of it, and journalism students are forced to go into respectable professions, or entertainment industries of one sort or another, respectable or not.
This is the anti-Fairness Doctrine - aka state-run-anti-free-press, Pravda, etc.
WELCOME TO THE MINISTRY OF INFORMATION.
Al Pacino’s speech in “The Devil’s Advocate”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGR4SFOimlk
Kevin Lomax: “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven”, is that it?
John Milton: Why not? I’m here on the ground with my nose in it since the whole thing began. I’ve nurtured every sensation man’s been inspired to have. I cared about what he wanted and I never judged him. Why? Because I never rejected him. In spite of all his imperfections, I’m a fan of man! I’m a humanist. Maybe the last humanist.
John Milton: Don’t get too cocky my boy. No matter how good you are don’t ever let them see you coming. That’s the gaffe my friend. You gotta keep yourself small. Innocuous. Be the little guy. You know, the nerd... the leper... shit-kickin’ surfer. Look at me. Underestimated from day one. You’d never think I was a master of the universe, now would ya?
John Milton: Let me give you a little inside information about God. God likes to watch. He’s a prankster. Think about it. He gives man instincts! He gives you this extraordinary gift, and then what does he do, I swear for his own amusment, his own private, cosmic gag reel, he sets the rules in opposition. It’s the goof of all time. Look but don’t touch. Touch, but don’t taste! Taste, don’t swallow. Ahaha! And when you’re jumpin’ from one foot to the next, what is he doing? He’s laughin’ his sick, fuckin’ ass off. He’s a tight-ass! He’s a sadist! He’s an absentee landlord. Worship that? Never!
John Milton: I only set the stage. You pull your own strings.
Kevin Lomax: Who are you?
John Milton: Oh there are so many names.
Kevin Lomax: Satan?
John Milton: Call me Dad.
John Milton: Vanity, definitely my favorite sin.
John Milton: Self love, the all natural opiate.
John Milton: Who in their right mind, Kevin, could possibly deny that the twentieth century was mine, all of it Kevin, all of it mine?
John Milton: Freedom baby is never having to say you are sorry.
Kevin Lomax: What about love?
John Milton: Overrated. Biochemically no different from eating large quantities of chocolate.
John Milton: A woman’s shoulders are the front lines of her mystique, and her neck, if she’s alive, has all the mystery of a border town. A no-man’s land in that battle between the mind and the body.
Kevin Lomax: Is this a test?
Pam: Isn’t everything?
Kevin Lomax: Are we negotiating?
John Milton: Always.
John Milton: Guilt is just a bag of fuckin’ bricks. All ya gotta do is set it down.
John Milton: The worst vice is advice.
http://www.quotegeek.com/index.php?action=viewcategory&categoryid=687
The very best admission of guilt in the English language, in my opinion:
“Act 3 Scene 3 : Oh my offence is rank, it smells to heaven (Spoken by Claudius)
O, my offence is rank it smells to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t,
A brother’s murder. Pray can I not,
Though inclination be as sharp as will:
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent;
And, like a man to double business bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect. What if this cursed hand
Were thicker than itself with brother’s blood,
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy
But to confront the visage of offence?
And what’s in prayer but this two-fold force,
To be forestalled ere we come to fall,
Or pardon’d being down? Then I’ll look up;
My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn? ‘Forgive me my foul murder’?
That cannot be; since I am still possess’d
Of those effects for which I did the murder,
My crown, mine own ambition and my queen.
May one be pardon’d and retain the offence?
In the corrupted currents of this world
Offence’s gilded hand may shove by justice,
And oft ‘tis seen the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law: but ‘tis not so above;
There is no shuffling, there the action lies
In his true nature; and we ourselves compell’d,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence. What then? what rests?
Try what repentance can: what can it not?
Yet what can it when one can not repent?
O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,
Art more engaged! Help, angels! Make assay!
Bow, stubborn knees; and, heart with strings of steel,
Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe!
All may be well. “
“Hamlet.” Act 3 Scene 3 : Oh my offence is rank, it smells to heaven (Spoken by Claudius)
http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/quotes/soliloquies/hamlet-offence-rank.htm
What we’ll be able to expect as unimportant storylines in this “Free Press”:
“American Pravda Asleep on the Job”
“This is outrageous! And in all fairness, President Obama is not responsible for the actions of his half-brother, and should not be judged for them. However, the depths to which the American Pravda will go to cover for their beloved president is beyond disturbing. Their lack of professionalism is a joke, and they should be avoided at all costs.
Once again, the British press covered the story that the American mainstream media kept silent until they absolutely were forced to come clean.
Read about how our own Pravda covered a story about Obama’s half-brother’s attempted molestation of a young teen in the UK:
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/04/unreal-us-media-ignores-story-of.html
Unreal!... US Media Ignores Story Of President Obama’s Brother Molesting Young Teen Girl
“The British media is all over this story.
The US media?... Not a peep.”
http://exposingliberallies.blogspot.com/2009/04/american-pravda-asleep-on-job.html
Say hello to the “shining, beckoning” Ministry of Truth.
the FCC would force broadcasters to sell media properties to approved women and minority groups. He called this “equal opportunity” and “diversity.”
- diversity:
- consisting of groups who are more likely to be Democrats than the public at large.
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