I have sneaking admiration for the conservative movement. Collectively, they have a power of imagination that would make them millionaires if they ever decided to compete with Stephen King and Dan Brown. The latest example requires a bit of background. The FCC, as you may know, is required by law to be concerned about community needs and whether broadcasters are meeting them. They dont actually care about this as much as they used to, but the laws the law, and they still care. So two years, while they were prepping their Section 257 Report to Congress, they commissioned USCs Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism to produce a literature review of existing research about the critical information needs of the American public and the barriers to participation in the communications industry that might limit the extent to which critical needs are met. Wait! Dont fall asleep yet. It gets better. Anyway, this is every bit as much of a snooze fest as it sounds like, and no one cared at the time. Nonetheless, the good folks at USC duly convened a a multi-disciplinary team of communication experts, journalists, legal scholars, and social scientists and produced the requested review. Again, nobody cared. In September 2012, the FCC took the next step, contracting with Social Sciences International to design a research model that would provide the Commission with a tool for understanding access to and barriers in providing critical information needs in diverse American communities. Yet again, no one cared. Dammit! I can see you falling asleep again. Buck up, folks!... I guess it all started last week, when Ajit Pai, a Republican FCC commissioner, wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal warning that the SSI study was tantamount to reinstating the Fairness Doctrine, a right-wing bugaboo of long standing. For several days, this still didnt catch anyones attention, even though Pai had provided the ammunition. Then it exploded. A pair of Republican congressmen warned that any attempt to revive the Fairness Doctrine, through study or any other means, should not be attempted by the FCC or any other government agency. The professional right jumped in immediately. Now we see the heavy hand of the Obama administration poised to interfere with the First Amendment rights of journalists, thundered Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice, which circulated an online petition demanding an end to President Obamas plan to put monitors in the newsrooms of every major media outlet in the country. Monitors in the newsroom! And that was that. Starting Wednesday, this assault on the First Amendment from the Oppressor-in-Chief has been on a 24/7 loop at Fox News. Its the latest example of Obama the tyrant, desperately trying to shut down conservative voices in the media. Amazing, isnt it? Thus my sneaking admiration. In a million years, I would never have read the SSI proposal and done anything but yawn. If Id been feeling really energetic, I might have been annoyed that my tax dollars were being spent on a pro forma project that, frankly, even the SSI folks seemed to be phoning in. But a threat to the First Amendment? I just never would have dreamed that up. But thats why Im not Stephen King. No imagination. Movement conservatives, on the other hand, find stuff like this all the time. How do they do it?
Posted on: Fri, 21 Feb 2014 20:03:35 +0000