Your Economy (No Politics)

[basserdan]

CAN’T MAKE IT UP: FCC WANTS TO POLICE NEWSROOMS

FCC’s Ajit Pai in WSJ op-ed: “News organizations often disagree about what Americans need to know. … But everyone should agree on this: The government has no place pressuring media organizations into covering certain stories. Unfortunately, the Federal Communications Commission, where I am a commissioner, does not agree. 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 FCC also wants to wade into office politics. One question for reporters is: ‘Have you ever suggested coverage of what you consider a story with critical information for your customers that was rejected by management?’
http://on.wsj.com/MGlRu1

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POLITICAL INTIMIDATION?

Washington Examiner’s Byron York: “Advocates promote the project with Obama-esque rhetoric. ‘This study begins the charting of a course to a more effective delivery of necessary information to all citizens,’ said FCC commissioner Mignon Clyburn in 2012. Clyburn, daughter of powerful House Democratic Rep. James Clyburn, was appointed to the FCC by … Obama and served as acting chair for part of last year. The FCC, Clyburn said, ‘must emphatically insist that we leave no American behind when it comes to meeting the needs of those in varied and vibrant communities of our nation — be they native born, immigrant, disabled, non-English speaking, low-income, or other.’

“It's not difficult to see those topics quickly becoming vehicles for political intimidation. In fact, it's difficult to imagine that they wouldn't. For example, might the FCC standards that journalists must meet on the environment look something like the Obama administration's environmental agenda? Might standards on economic opportunity resemble the president's inequality agenda? The same could hold true for the categories of health and welfare and ‘civic information’— and pretty much everything else.”
http://washex.am/1jOOY9o