A Clear Violation of Freedom of the Press and Yet Only Silence From the Mainstream Media

More than 2 weeks ago a story broke about the FCC and their "study" of newsrooms. They are going to be putting people into newsrooms to see how stories get published. An FCC commisioner actually spoke up about this over 2 weeks ago and yet the press in this country, with the exception of Fox News, has been virtually silent on the subject. The FCC calls this a study. Research Design for the Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs. You can download and read it from this link. It is a long document (78 pages), but worth reading. Below is a short excerpt:

The most reliable way to collect this information is through personal contact with news media property staff or someone familiar with the staff. However this also presents challenges. It is important to identify and talk with people who are willing to provide demographic information about their respective property’s work force. Official inquiries of this type are normally directed to the Human Resources office, which often
refers such questions to the corporate office.

The whole document concerns how they will run their study and what they are studying. A lot of it has to do with typical liberal subjects such as minorities and how they are affected by the news. Below is some typical reading from the document:

The primary criteria used to select markets will be size and racial/ethnic diversity (including the
availability of news in multiple languages). Given the multi-national, racial and ethnic
composition of the United States, it is important that markets selected are representative of our
increasing diversity. Further, given the focus of the study and FCC’s particular interest in access
to CINs by minority and underserved populations, diversity of the selected markets is integral.

Page 25 of the document gives a list of most of the things this study is looking for.

The most important thing about this "study" is how it appears to focus on what news  stations are and are not reporting. The fact that they are checking up on what stories relate to certain groups is just plain scary. The FCC is in the business of granting broadcasting licenses, not directly controlling content. Even though this study is voluntary lets face it, who is going to say no to the guy who controls your broadcast license?

Another item of interest is their apparent curiosity about who is employed at those newsrooms. There are a lot of pages relating to the racial and ethnic make-up of these news stations. That is damned sure not the FCC's business.

One last item of concern is that the study involves newspapers in addition to broadcast news. The FCC has absolutely zero, zilch, nada, none, zip, authority over newspapers. This more than anything points directly to the government wanting total control of the media.

The really, really sad part is that the news organizations as a whole are not up in arms about this study and the potential consequences. This is direct government interference with the news media. It may be a study today, but we all know that tomorrow it will be the basis for some sort of legislation. This needs to be stopped now. You need to write to your Congressional Representative and your U.S. Senators and demand 2 things. One that the FCC stay out of the newsrooms and the news business and secondly ask them to hold hearings on where the idea and direction of this study came from. Is this simply some jackass in the FCC with a stupid and intrusive idea or is this coming from somewhere in the White House?

You can find and contact your Reps and Senators at the USA.Gov website. It took me less than 5 minutes to write to mine, I suggest you do the same. Then I suggest you contact your local media outlets and ask them why they are not screaming bloody murder about this so called study.

Folks, if the thought of the FCC putting folks into newsrooms to check up on how stories are selected and reported on, doesn’t scare you then you really need to move. The feds are quietly trying to take full control of the media here.  No matter how they spin it, this is a clear and present danger to our way of life. This reeks of “Pravda” and every other Soviet era communist controlled state media  [ If you have no clue what "Pravda" is, then you need to slap your teachers for failing to educate you properly ]. You need to be writing your Congressional reps and Senators today. If you don’t care, then you need to leave this country and go to Russia or Venezuela or Cuba.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled surfing.

Tim

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