As much as I can't stand MSNBC or the bickering Fox News has with that network, the idea of the Federal Communications Commission attempting to regulate the news media, including freedom of the press is a simple violation of Constitutional rights. Fox, MSNBC, CNN, HLN, Bloomberg, they all have freedom to exercise their right to report news to the American people and to those all over the world. Not to mention, they're all owned by major corporations... it's called capitalism.
But apparently, the current people in our Federal Government have been lacking knowledge in that department for the better half of the two years thus far. FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, maybe fed up with the bickering between Fox and MSNBC, decided to sit down for an interview with Katty Kay of BBC Washington and stated:
"It's a pretty serious situation that we are in... we're not producing the body of news and information that democracy needs to conduct its civic dialogue, we're not producing as much news as we did five ten, fifteen years ago and we have to reverse that trend or I think we are going to be pretty close to denying our citizens the essential news and information that they need in order to make intelligent decisions about the full direction of their country..."
Who in the hell cares about what Commissioner Copps thinks? The news media has First Amendment rights just like everyone else in this country, granted all news organizations should uphold ethical journalist practices, and have facts, not falsifying those facts. There is also a greater difference between traditional news and the commentators on the networks. I think Mr. Copps beef is primarily with Bill O'Reilly on Fox News, Keith Olbermann on MSNBC, and maybe Jack Cafferty on CNN.
But why is he so committed to regulating or possibly silencing the news media? The only real rational answer to this question is that perhaps Mr. Copps does not want the American public to know about what is really going on in their country.
In fact, probably more Americans are happy with the news that they get today. Not only does the traditional cable news network provide sources of information, but the internet is the principal place to get breaking news stories. Is Mr. Copps going to start regulating the internet? Quite frankly, the American people can get they're news from wherever they choose, and it is not Mr. Copps interest nor should it be up to his decision to tell people what kind of news and/or news commentators we should listen to.
Most of this comes into place ever since Senator Jay Rockefeller publicly criticized both Fox News and MSNBC wishing that both of those news network be shut down simply to improve political discourse. Senator Rockefeller wanted the FCC to handle this, but failed to do his homework since the FCC only handles broadcast airways, and not cable airways.
But now, Mr. Copps seems to want to expand the FCC's role in the regulation of ALL airways, not just broadcast.
More Government control...? I think so.
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