FCC: Funding Cronyism of Color
I mentioned President Obama’s new FCC “diversity” panel earlier this week. Well, they met yesterday. And it was every bit as bad as expected.
FCC Chairman Michael Copps denied that the panel would move to reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine. But the social engineering/racial bean-counting efforts are underway.
Moreover, Judicial Watch yesterday announced that it had obtained documents that undermine the FCC chairman’s denial:
Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) concerning the “Fairness Doctrine,” a policy abolished in 1987, and other governmental means to limit free speech in the media. Judicial Watch obtained the documents in response to a December 2008 Freedom of Information Act request.
While President Obama is on record opposing the return of the Fairness Doctrine, which is viewed by many as an attempt to squelch the free speech of conservatives in the media, these documents show that the FCC is considering alternative proposals that may also regulate free speech in the media under the professed goal of “diversity.”
For example, in December 2007, the FCC proposed new “localism” measures to force broadcast stations to offer programming more “responsive to the needs and interests of the communities that they are licensed to serve.” These proposed measures, highlighted in a document entitled, “The Report on Broadcast Localism and Notice of Approved Rulemaking,” included a requirement that broadcasters, “provide 3 hours per week of locally-produced program,” and that licensees establish “permanent advisory boards (including representatives of underserved community segments).” The FCC noted that these measures would become part of the application renewal process to make sure broadcasters “meet their responsibilities.”
Problems with “localism” are highlighted in a legal memo written by Kathleen Kirby of the law firm Wiley Rein and submitted to Rosemary Harold, serving as legal counsel to FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell. In the document, which was distributed internally at the FCC, Ms. Kirby advises that the Fairness Doctrine “would do well to stay dead.” Ms. Kirby then turns her attention to “localism,” advising that such a policy could represent a “stealth enactment” of the Fairness Doctrine. Ms. Kirby states: “Convene permanent advisory boards? Give aggrieved listeners ‘more straightforward guidance’ on ‘how individuals can directly participate in the license renewal process?’ That sounds mild. But then again, so did the Fairness Doctrine.”
“These documents are a useful insight into the internal debates at the FCC about the Fairness Doctrine and its cousin, ‘localism,’ said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “We’re going to have to keep an eye on this FCC. The last thing our country needs is bureaucrats in the Obama administration stomping on the First Amendment rights of conservatives.”
Press Advisory: Judicial Watch will host a panel discussion regarding the “Fairness Doctrine” May 14th, 12:30 – 2 p.m., in the First Amendment Lounge of the National Press Club, 14th & F Streets, NW, Washington, DC.
***
Related: New book on the Fairness Doctrone by Brian Jennings. Review here.
What does the Obama FCC stand for? Funding Cronyism of Color.
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As an English speaker in Phoenix,AZ ; I feel woefully under-served by the media. My cable co. and, Dish network supply way too much Spanish programming. I’m sure the FCC will rectify this, forthwith.
This is the way marxists consolidate power. Control the means of mass communication and suppress dissent.
BTW did you notice Chavez’ lastest round of nationalizations? I wonder if he is giving tips to Obama?
Orwellian for “its moving along as we’ve planned.”
Fairness Doctrine by any other name achieves the same leftist goal.
Absolutly….by adding programming in Chinese, Arabic and a dozen languages other than English.
Errah, Nothing to see here. I’m sure Eric Holder’s position on Freedom of Speech will be that it is resereved for only a special class of person (not citizen).
Watch out…they are coming for the Internet!
Errah, the last country that when this route was Babylon with their famous tower and we all know how well that worked out.
So, 3 hours of what exactly? Hip-hop? Footage of feed lots or the abattoir? Apple-picking? Crop dusting? Cinco de Mayo parade? State Fair pumpkin patch winners? The hell?
They could bring back Sanford and Son.
“Elizabeth! I’m coming….”
We all know that programming with Christian and family values is all too scarce… but letting the Obamamites/Sodomites define “family values” under rules of perversity/diversity will be the death of broadcast media…
In liberal code-speak, “Diversity” only applies to skin color or gender, never to ideas.
You can take it to the bank that whenever any organization starts talking about the need to “increase diversity,” then PC authoritarianism is on the way.
“Nothing so infuriates champions of ‘Diversity’ as much as an opinion ‘diverse’ from their own.”
Under one or other guise, this effort to take down political dissent on the air-waves is coming.
I have heard sound-bites of virtually every prominent Dimocrat speaking in support of this move.
There can be no doubt how deeply and bitterly they hate the effective voices on the Right.
The only real question is what are you prepared to do to stop them?
Glenn Beck discussed localism in great depth yesterday.
This has got to be resisted.
If racism is so important then who is it that really hates who?
This was a bad idea the first time they did it.
We have a responsibility as freedom-loving Americans to stop this dead in any tracks it may make.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
I believe he discussed how the gov would like to take him and others of of the air.
Localism is a back door way to initiate FD but, they will do it at a local level not a national broadcast level. Big difference.
They will go after local DMA areas and force media groups to equal out broadcast time. They will do this by affiliates or O&O’s. Then eventually is will trickle up to the national level.
Well, it they take Rush, Hannity, Boortz, Beck, Laura, etc, off the air, I won’t listen to the radio again. Think of the millions lost in ads. I don’t watch anything but Fox and will not watch news on any other bho network. If they do away with MM, HA and the other internet sites, I guess I will just catch up on reading. I can not imagine all these people will let this happen without a fight.
L
Why do you think that loss of revenue would deter them? They would rather Clear Channel go out of business altogether.
txvet2,
You are right. This bunch just wants control of our lives. My hubby, a vet also here in TX, like you, served to defend our Republic and we had no idea how it is going down the tube with bho in such a short period of time. So horribly sad.
L
I don’t think this President would hesitate to support a “stealth enactment” of the Fairness Doctrine, like “localism”, and still claim he kept his word. But, no matter what he calls it, if he enacts anything that forces the media to put more left-wing propaganda on our airways, he will be violating his promise to end torture in America.
“localism”
In other words, racism.
Right now, I don’t hear “diversity” on the black or spanish stations. There are no conservative hosts on any minority market in the Houston area. So localism is just another word for racism. Straight up!
November 17, 2008
Obama Declares War on Conservative Talk Radio
By Jim Boulet, Jr.
Barack Obama sought to silence his critics during his 2008 campaign. Now, with the ink barely dry on this November’s ballots, Obama has begun a war against conservative talk radio.
Obama is on record as saying he does not plan an exhumation of the now-dead “Fairness Doctrine”. Instead, Obama’s attack on free speech will be far less understood by the general public and accordingly, far more dangerous.
The late community organizer Saul Alinsky taught his followers to strike hard from an unexpected direction, an approach known as Alinsky jujitsu.
Obama himself not only worked as an organizer for an Alinsky offshoot organization, Chicago’s Developing Communities Project, but would go on to teach classes in Alinsky’s beliefs and methods.
“Alinsky jujitsu” as applied to conservative talk radio means using vague rules already on the books to threaten any station which dares to air conservative programs with the loss of its valuable broadcast license.
Team Obama and the “localism” weapon
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule in question is called “localism.” Radio and television stations are required to serve the interests of their local community as a condition of keeping their broadcast licenses.
Obama needs only three votes from the five-member FCC to define localism in such a way that no radio station would dare air any syndicated conservative programming.
Localism is one of the rare issues on which Obama himself has been outspoken.
On September 20, 2007, Obama submitted a pro-localism written statement to an FCC hearing held at the Chicago headquarters of Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.’s Operation Push.
Furthermore, the Obama transition team knows all about the potential of localism as a means of silencing conservative dissent. The head of the Obama transition team is John Podesta, President and CEO of the Center for American Progress.
In 2007, the Center for American Progress issued a report, The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio. This report complained that there was too much conservative talk on the radio because of “the absence of localism in American radio markets” and urged the FCC to “[e]nsure greater local accountability over radio licensing.
Podesta’s choice as head of the Federal Communications Commission’s transition team is Henry Rivera.
Since 1994, Rivera has been chairman of the Minority Media Telecommunications Council. This organization has specific ideas about localism:
In other words, it would not do for broadcasters to meet with the business leaders whose companies advertise on their station. Broadcasters must reach beyond the business sector and look for leaders in the civic, religious, and non-profit sectors that regularly serve the needs of the community, particularly the needs of minority groups that are typically poorly served by the broadcasting industry as a whole.
Rivera’s law firm is also the former home of Kevin Martin, the current FCC chairman. Martin is himself an advocate of more stringent localism requirements.
It was on Martin’s watch that on January 24, 2008, the FCC released its proposed localism regulations. According to TVNewsday: “At the NAB radio show two weeks ago, Martin said that he wanted to take action on localism this year and invited broadcasters to negotiate requirements with him.”
FCC complaints as politics by other means
Remember that an FCC license is required for any radio or television station to legally operate in the United States. A single complaint from anyone can significantly hinder a station’s license renewal process or even cost the station its FCC license entirely.
There have been some attempts to utilize the FCC complaint process for partisan political ends, most memorably in 2004, when Sinclair Broadcasting agreed to air a documentary questioning Senator John Kerry’s war record:
Poised to pre-empt programming on its 62 television stations to run a negative documentary about Sen. John Kerry, Sinclair Broadcast Group has come under fire from critics calling it partisan and questioning whether it is failing federal broadcast requirements to reflect local interests.
Members of Congress and independent media groups have questioned the company’s willingness to respect “localism,” a section of federal law that requires media companies to cover local issues and provide an outlet for local voices.
One group, The Leftcoaster, went further:
But what isn’t done a lot which requires the broadcaster to rack up expensive legal fees, is to challenge every one of their affiliates’ FCC license renewals as they come up this year and next. … [T]here still is time to organize and file Petitions or objections by November 1, 2004 for Sinclair stations in North Carolina and South Carolina, and for Florida by January 1, 2005.
More recently, the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium issued a “fill in the blanks” official FCC complaint form which begins “Anything that you feel is offensive is worth reporting.”
Community advisory boards as permanent complaint departments
These random efforts could be far more effective at silencing conservatives if they could only be systematized and institutionalized. That is exactly what the FCC proposed on January 24th. Every radio and television station would be required to create:
[P]ermanent advisory boards comprised of local officials and other community leaders, to periodically advise them of local needs and issues, and seek comment on the matter. …
To ensure that these discussions include representatives of all community elements, these boards would be made up of leaders of various segments of the community, including underserved groups.
The “community advisory board as permanent complaint department” model may well be based upon the 1995 revisions of the Community Reinvestment Act, as described by Howard Husock in City Journal:
[T]the new CRA regulations also instructed bank examiners to take into account how well banks responded to complaints. … [F]or advocacy groups that were in the complaint business, the Clinton administration regulations offered a formal invitation. …
By intervening-even just threatening to intervene-in the CRA review process, left-wing nonprofit groups have been able to gain control over eye-popping pools of bank capital, which they in turn parcel out to individual low-income mortgage seekers. A radical group called ACORN Housing has a $760 million commitment from the Bank of New York…[emphasis in original].
Understand that even allowing conservatives to be radio talk show guests may provoke a FCC licensing complaint. Just ask “right wing hatchet man” Stanley Kurtz.
For Obama, when it comes to radio talk, silence is golden, at least when it comes to conservatives.
Can localism be stopped?
FCC observers agree that the outpouring of complaints from groups like the National Religious Broadcasters during the original comment period helped delay matters.
However, Kevin Martin’s determination to enact a localism regulation has led him to ask the broadcast industry to accept a voluntary standard that the FCC would then enact. If industry failed to agree now, Martin warned, “a future FCC may be less willing to compromise than the current one.”
This scare tactic — agree to our demands today or suffer dire consequences tomorrow — is having an impact.
What broadcasters need to do: speak up now
Radio and television station owners need to become engaged in the localism issue and then take the time to educate their own Congressman and Senators about the dangers of the FCC’s proposals.
If broadcasters get involved, it just may be possible to block implementation of any localism rules during the few months remaining of the Bush Administration.
This delay is critical, since once it is the Obama Administration leading the fight for rules which would shut down conservative talk radio, Republican Congressmen and Senators will find it easier to fight back.
The Senate needs to draw a line in the sand: free speech, not localism
While President Obama will have the authority to name Commissioners as their terms end, these nominations must be confirmed by the Senate.
A few pointed questions on localism to FCC nominees during their confirmation hearings would be useful. A filibuster of any and all pro-localism FCC nominees would be even better.
Any Senator leading such a filibuster would earn the gratitude of millions of fans of talk radio as well as everyone who believes in free speech..
These socialist’s/marxist’s are going to stop till there’s a revolt and it’s coming.
A little off topic, but part of the Culture of Corruption:
Josh Reid, one of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s three sons, has been chosen to fill the presidential appointee’s seat on the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s Governing Board.
From the Tahoe Daily Tribune.
*This is serious stuff and must have all out resistance; Their goal is not diversity, but to silence conservative talk radio by putting station owners in a position of either changing formats or going out of business; They will also go after the internet and sights such as this one.
*Please remember these two things about P-BO and the Clown Cluster:
**They believe in diversity, except for diversity of thought.
**Socialism knows no God but Government.
Watch what Obama does, not what he says. I wouldn’t believe anything he says.
Another budding member of the ruling class. Nepotism reigns supreme. It won’t be long before they’ll be inheriting their parents’ positions in the government, and our conversion to an aristocracy will be complete. (We already have one here – the hereditary Gonzalez seat.) I don’t think even Marx understood that his “socialist” economy was nothing more or less than a ruling propertied class and a servant class, which was the dominant model throughout history until the United States Constitution was born.
I wish they would pass a “fairness doctrine” on what music you could download and play. Then you’d see a revolt that would put the Revolution to shame. But, until then, there are many people who go about their business totally unaware or caring about their loss of “freedom of speech”. Mostly because they’ve been dumbed-down through the years. Right now, I’m reading a book, a memoir of a German, who lived through WW2. He remarked, several times, about the propaganda the radio put out, and was believed by the people. He began to have doubts when old friends started coming home to be buried. It constantly reminded him of old man Hoffer…”at what cost?”. I mention this because, unless it is stopped, the government will decide what will be broadcast and what will be suppressed. It’s natural for any uncontrolled government to work in that direction. Paying “bribes” to the people (programs) is working. The real truth is hidden. One day, we may wake up and find that all liberty is gone. Then it could be too late.
Some posters on this thread mentioned loss of advertisement revenues for broadcasters if anything like the Fairness Doctrine is imposed. This is likely to be true as a reflection of free market forces. However, if this becomes a serious problem for broadcasters, you can be sure that the leftists in government will devise means to prop up or subsidize the failing stations with your tax dollars. This is one of the most egregious aspects of having leftists/liberals/statists/democrats in power. They can force conservatives to pay for programs (through taxation) that fly in the face of conservative princples. It’s bad enough to have to live in a statist society, it’s even worse if you have to pay for it.
The brown shirts and jack boots are not far behind. What have we allowed these idiots to do to our country?
President Obama is on record opposing the return of the Fairness Doctrine”, sure but he is known to lie all the time. when zero talks he wears a mask, when he acts he takes it off.
And it does not seem to bother him one bit-none of the Big Media calls him on it. After broadcast media they will come after the blogs. I ordered my shortwave.
Hussein is not the type to do anything above board. He sneaks through the allyways to accomplish his goals. Like trying to control the gun and ammo market rather than just banning guns. He’s also like a magician where he directs your attention to one thing, while pulling off the trick from another direction where you’re not looking.
He is a very devious person.
This is the only battleground where they will lose with the Fairness Doctrine or localization. If no one is listening, then no one will advertize. No ads, no money. No money, no – wait for it! – Tax Revenue.
How many people listen to Rush Limbaugh every day? Tens of millions. Do you really believe that advertizers will find someone else, non-conservative, to take his place? No, they won’t. The heads of the radio networks will tell congress not to pass FD or localization. They will do it anyway. Which should give us a VERY big stick in the 2012 elections. Remember, even unemployed radio workers get to vote.
Dr. Peter Venkman (talking to the Mayor): “Lenny, you will have saved the lives of millions of registered voters.”
Wait…3 hours a week?
Let me take a look at what that brings in Portland, OR:
KXL 750 – M-F 5A-9A – Portland’s Local News (Local); Lars Larson (local/regional) – 12-3
KEX 1190 – M-F 5a-9a – Morning Update with Paul Linnman (local); 4-7p Mark & Dave (local)
KPAM 860 – M-F 5-9a – Bob Miller in the Morning (local); 5-8p – Victoria Taft (local)
————
Those are the big 3 conservative talk stations. They carry the local programming required by FCC for localism, as well as locally produced shows on the weekend.
Now, why the hell do we need these rules? Is there any way we can short-circuit these rules BEFORE they gets put in? Like maybe a court case or overthrowing Obama’s ass?
It’s pretty much the same here, and I would guess just about everywhere. It isn’t as if there are only 2-3 radio stations within hearing. There are probably 20 within reasonable distance of San Antonio, and probably half are in Spanish. Any one of them produces more than 3 hours a day of local programming. The rub is which hours of the day, because during the prime daytime hours, most who are listening at all listen to talk radio.
Dick Durbin tried to slip the “Localism” Fairness-Doctrine-Backdoor in to the DC Voting Rights Bill this year.
That particular Bill died, but now we see a new backdoor Fairness Doctrine in H.R. 1966: Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act.
They’re going to keep trying until one slips past – and like a suicide-bomber, it only takes one slipping past…
– MuscleDaddy
Obama to name congressman’s daughter to FCC
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama plans to nominate House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn’s daughter to a seat on the Federal Communications Commission, a powerful agency that regulates issues ranging from TV profanity to broadband Internet access.
Mignon Clyburn, the eldest of the South Carolina Democrat’s three daughters, is a Charleston native who has served on the South Carolina Public Service Commission since 1998.
Obama’s promotion of Jim Clyburn’s daughter — which the Senate must confirm — would further strengthen the president’s relationship with a key congressional ally who helped move his $787 billion economic-stimulus plan quickly through the House in February.
“She is very competent and accomplished, someone of whom I am very proud,” the congressman said.
Aides to Clyburn said he had not spoken with Obama about the FCC post for his daughter.
Of course not. Nancy carried a hand-written note.
How many of the “advisory boards” would be controlled by groups like ACORN from day one?
In 1987, AM radio was so close to being dead, the Buzzards were fighting next to the body. Doing away with the FD made the business decision (a huge risk at the time) to make conservative radio talk shows possible.
Conservative radio (generally on AM) became one of the most successful media formats of all time. No one forced people to listen. We listened because, finally, after decades of having nothing but Liberal spew on the airways, someone got on the radio and said what we were all thinking.
A majority of people agree with conservative radio hosts. This is why the Liberals are attacking Limbaugh. They aren’t attacking politicians. Why not? It’s because we agree with Rush. A majority of us.
If the Libs can change our opinions about Rush and his colleagues, they can run the political voice of Conservatism off the airways.
It isn’t about controlling airways, It’s about controlling votes. Democrats may act like bumbling, stupid lemmings but when it comes to politics, they never bring a knife to a gunfight.
If only the GOP could fight as well..
All of them.