Constitution for the United States of America
Bill of Rights - Article the third [Amendment I]
“Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…”
If you
thought the IRS scandal which almost exclusively targeted conservative
organizations for special scrutiny, denying them tax-exempt 501(c)(3) and
(c)(4) status, now followed up by a new IRS initiative, 26 CFR Part 1,
REG-134417-13, whose apparent aim is to institutionalize discrimination against
tax-exempt 501(c)(4) groups by limiting the political activities in which these
organizations can participate, like neutral “voter registration” and “get out
the vote” drives, was the end of governmental intrusion into “First Amendment”
space, think again. The FCC has now been
recruited to continue the “dirty work.”
In what has
now become the typical “Orwellian” modus operandi of our government, the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced that it will soon launch
an initiative — the Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs (CIN)
— “in order to assess whether GOVERNMENT ACTION is needed to ensure that the
information needs of all Americans are being met, including women and
minorities.” When the FCC’s OCBO announced the initiative, apparently on
November 1, 2013, it selected Columbia, South Carolina [a generally
conservative state] to field-test the Research Design for the CIN. OCBO expects
to complete this next phase of its Critical Information Needs Research no later
than July 2014 – much in advance of the mid-term elections. The FCC’s stated
purpose of the CIN is to “collect information from television and radio
broadcasters about ‘the process by which stories are selected’ and how often
stations cover ‘critical information needs,’ as well as to assess ‘perceived
station bias’ and ‘perceived responsiveness to underserved populations.’”
Quite frankly,
if this is not a blatant First Amendment violation of freedom of the press, my
law school education is worthless. It is my hope that stations approached,
whether liberal or conservative, will simply refuse to cooperate with this
impermissible and unconstitutional governmental intrusion. How a news
organization chooses to cover a story is simply NONE OF THE GOVERNMENT’S
BUSINESS - EVER. Freedom of the press is and should forever be an inviolable
right of the American people. Maintaining freedom of the press, regardless of political ideology, is
absolutely critical if we are to remain a free republic.
From Me2u ;-)
No comments:
Post a Comment