Jay Sekulow:
The FCC is launching a new study, taking upon itself the task of deciding what news the public “needs” to hear, versus the news the public wants to hear. The agency will conduct a “General Population Survey” that will “measure community members’ actual and perceived critical information needs.”
Got that? What you think (perceive) you need to know is different from what the government says you need to know.
Next, the FCC will send monitors to newsrooms across the country who will ask questions regarding the “philosophy” of the newsroom, inquire about possible conflicts between reporters and their bosses, and even determine how much influence each individual has in deciding what to report.
Does that kind of government inquiry sound familiar? Are we not less than a year removed from an IRS apology for inquiring about the internal workings of conservative groups?
Last week, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, who believes the government has no role in how a certain story is covered, disclosed in a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed the existence of the new FCC plan that will ostensibly “study” how media organizations report the news.
Here’s Mr. Pai:
Last May the FCC proposed an initiative to thrust the federal government into newsrooms across the country. With its “Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs,” or CIN, the agency plans to send researchers to grill reporters, editors and station owners about how they decide which stories to run. A field test in Columbia, S.C., is scheduled to begin this spring.
The purpose of the CIN, according to the FCC, is to ferret out information from television and radio broadcasters about “the process by which stories are selected” and how often stations cover “critical information needs,” along with “perceived station bias” and “perceived responsiveness to underserved populations.”
The news was jarring, so I downloaded the FCC’s “Research Design”
and read it for myself.
What I found was even more disturbing than what Mr. Pai reports.
If radio and television stations resist coughing up confidential employee data (including demographic information) to aid the FCC monitors, the study also (on pages 10 and 11) provides helpful “strategies” for obtaining information — even when employers and their Human Resources departments refuse to cooperate.
How reassuring that the federal government is devising new ways to violate the privacy of reporters, editors and their employers – all to make sure news outlets are providing Americans with the news the Obama administration says they “need.”
The roadmap to censorship is clear. Expect this study to show that some news organizations are failing to cover the “right” stories – thus failing to give the people what they “need.”
Another trial balloon.
Was it a diversion from ObamaCare’s pathetic numbers of PAYING enrollees or an attempt at outrage-fatigue?
Seems the threat is being held out for a ”revised” study to be released later.
Oddly (or, maybe not) few leftist networks were bothered.
I am old enough to remember Watergate. I was in college at that time. I can remember the justified outrage of the media when it became public that Nixon had sent a representative to the IRS director who asked him to have that organization begin investigating Nixon’s enemies.
Wow! The yelling and screaming on ABCBSNBCPBS are still ringing in my ears.
Today…the MSM will not even report the Obama scandal stories. I can remember White House news conferences where President Nixon was literally screamed at by the Washington press corps demanding his attention to pick “me” to ask the next Watergate question. Reporters literally jumping from their chairs, waving their arms and yelling at the top of their voices…”Mr. President…Mr. President”. Nixon physically cowered behind his podium. I remember this. Compare that group of reporters with what we have today: lapdogs.
We have the “Justice” department going after a film maker who may have engaged in a minor campaign finance law violation. Dinesh Desoosa (sp?) after making “2016” a film examining Obama’s life and his political motivations is facing a possible prison term…not for the film…the Justice department says…but for breaking a campaign law that is so obscure, it is regularly, accidently broken in each election cycle. This dude is looking at prison, and we all know why.
How can the liberal media not care about this? How was the victim targeted? What are the political implications of this?
The IRS stopped 471 Tea Party groups from their 501 c 4 tax designation…while quickly approving such progressive groups. It seems 6 leftwing groups were accidently caught up in the Tea Party net…they were later approved without a problem.
Where’s the media??? Are they frightened…or just fellow Obama travelers? The big liberals networks will never recover from this. Does anyone watch or read them anymore? Zero cred.
A RESOUNDING “YES”!!!!!!!!!!
FCC Yanks Invasive Newsroom Questionnaire
In other words, it’s “on hold”. Expect them to try it again in a more sneaky way.
Fairness Doctrine Proponent’s Daughter in Charge of Invasive Newsroom Questionnaire
Media Silence Explained?: Soros Fingerprints On FCC Newsroom Probe
Universities in FCC Newsroom Probe Have Close Ties to Soros, Got $3.7M in Funding
Sarah Palin Blasts Press: You Only ‘Cry Foul’ When ‘Obama’s Boot is on Your Neck’
HERE IS THE PROOF THAT HE IS THE ONE WHO ORDER THE IRS ,
TO BLAST THE TEA-PARTY,AND DONORS OF MITT ROMNEY,
ON ELECTION 2012
NOW HE WANT TO MESS UP WITH THE FOX, AND IMPOSE WHAT HE WANT THEM TO SHOW,
OR ELSE,