Like Obamacare? Then you're going to love Obamanews - the exciting new FCC initiative to make sure that decision-making in the nation's newsrooms gets (ahem) "fixed" to assure that voters will hear only what they are supposed to hear.
The program, called the "Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs" or CIN (presumably pronounced "sin") for short, will place FCC "researchers" in newsrooms to examine how reporters, editors, and station owners decide which news stories to run, and why more female anchorwomen aren't wearing tampon earrings (as was done on MSNBC) to protest the GOP's War on Women.
The FCC researchers, who absolutely shouldn't be called "thought police" unless you want your mysterious death reported as an "on the lighter side" news item, will review "the process by which stories are selected," whether the news organizations cover "critical information needs," whether they're responsive to "underserved populations," and whether there is "perceived station bias" in harping on old stories like Benghazi when there's so much breaking news about Miley Cyrus.
Oddly, the FCC's "fact finding mission" will include placement of their representatives in news organizations which deal only in print...over which the FCC has absolutely no authority. Then again, as long as Barack Obama is making up new powers and getting away with it unchallenged, why should any other agencies show restraint? Especially if it will never be reported.
But truthfully, Hope n' Change DOESN'T think this is a draconian abuse of the First Amendment, we DON'T think this will have a chilling effect on what little news is still being reported, and we most certainly DON'T have a scary-looking FCC guy standing behind us right this very minute help help help.
31 comments:
Oh yeah!!! This is great stuff! You nail 'em good Stilton :-)
Government control of the media is a time-honored tradition. When Adolf Hitler rose to power in 1933, his first action was to take over control of the German press, and look how well that turned out. Lord Øbama taking over the US media simply means all news sources will be identical to the way CNN and MSNBC already are. Since they became lying presstitutes for His Worshipfulness, they both have managed to lose roughly half of their audiences. When all the rest of the MSM are forced to comply with the official propaganda, they too will be ignored, and we all will be getting our news from alternate sources such as this. It will be a long time before Big Brother can control everything that is discussed on the internet.
It's so nice that oily Jim Clyburn's daughter "Mignon" is going to be in charge of this.
Another "plus" is the fact that she is planning on trying it out first in Columbia, SC and probably with The State newspaper's full blessing. Obama News, that's a good one Stilton, good and scary....
With all due respect to Thomas Sowell, I wonder if we've reached his tipping point yet?
Spot on as usual Stilton, although I believe the correct appellation is "Dear Leader". Can't wait for the day he personally machine guns Reggie Love for some transgression or another.
I'll bet the registration website gets figured out and works like a champ...
@WMD: The tipping point, methinks, is a mere dot in Father Time's rearview mirror.
Someone I know who is married to a beautiful woman born in Vietnam has opined that he should send his wife and children there, and make plans to join them. This is not something we're used to hearing in the USA. I believe we're not in collapse, but have already collapsed. Why? Where are the legal challenges to Øbama's actions from the the other branches? Ah. Now you get it.
Wow! Look at the beautiful wooden horse O'Trojan gave us! I wonder what's inside...
@Justsomebody,
Is this true? Starting in South Carolina (one of the reddest states)? Gee what a surprise; I figured O'Liar would begin his crackdown on the media in places like New York City or Chicago (sarc off).
First it will be newspapers in conservative cities, next will be Fox News. Pravda, here we come! And our reprehensitives in Congress seem content to say nothing and do nothing while O'Liar repeatedly tramples the constitution. It's beyond time for folks to drink some real coffee and wake the hell up!
The Administration continues its attack on the Constitution as it moves toward controlling Americans. This really is Big Brother - the liberal newsrooms would not object to this (most of them, I'm certain) because the end result is more of their prejudicial news slant. I had to retreat from the second win of Obama because I cannot fathom this deception - it continues, though, without any faltering. I worry for my progeny.
Thanks SJ for all you do in trying to present the truth despite the bias of the MSM.
The 'Administration' once had complete control over Late Night TV, then Jay Leno started making jokes (and Jay was fired). But it gave courage to the others and even Marxist David Letterman tells the occasional Obama Joke.
Are there cracks forming in the Propoganda Arm (Liberal Media) of the Democrat Party? Is this FCC threat a way to attempt to force the media to keep in line, and not stray from the reservation?
I have no doubt.
Excellent choice of the picture from the film Brazil.
I think that's all to write for now, the hot breath of my "researcher" on my neck is getting annoying.
This is just another example of government spending tax dollars on something that's unnecessary and redundant. The media already reports what and how the obama administration wants them to.
BTW, luv the 'obamanews' tag - good one!
@Emmantaler, I agree completely. The tipping point is a far distant fuzzy memory now. And things were looking like we were becoming an eastern block Soviet satellite country. But thanks to Ted Cruz and Mike Lee I hope the air brakes are being applied.
I'm no Polyanna, but if these guys can side step being Vince Fostered, I'm now hopeful and grateful that it, at least, seems like someone is saying, "Hey, king hussein has no clothes!"
The Anchoress, Elizabeth Scalia, published a great piece on this topic yesterday: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/theanchoress/2014/02/20/over-fcc-plans-msm-finally-a-bit-curious-re-obama-admin/
I wonder when the American population will FINALLY get as mad as I AM! If anyone in the other two (former) branches of government were to "grow a pair" and put the brakes on lameont [sic] and his ILLEGAL using and usurping of power, we wouldn't be worrying about such matters! SOMEONE needs to address this situation in such a way that if he ever has a hemorrhoid operation they can remove his tonsils at the same time! (nudge nudge, wink wink) AND it would put on notice anyone else who would presume to act in such an ANTI-Constitutional manner. This lawless bastard needs to be deported back to a "third-world shithole" that he's trying to turn US into!!
Just like the sign I held at the south entrance of the Air Force Academy when this poseur came to the graduation in 2012, "LAMONT INSANE OBAMA, NOT THE SECOND TERM OF JIMMY CARTER, BUT THE FIRST TERM OF AL CAPONE!"
Great choice, Stilt! Brazil is one of my all-time fave movies. So apropos too. The cult of personality that is Dear Leader is coming into full bloom with control of the spymasters, the IRS, and now the media (actually they have been in control of the media for some time - the progs that is). For the record, my real name is not Chuck or Ef or Chuck Ef or ..... I am a mere pigment of ... Uh oh.
Where is that damn John Galt!!!?????
I envision one day we will have scores of boats outside of the legal sea boundary broadcasting the "real" news, music, videos etc. Just like they did in England to break the socialist BBC's control. That's assuming Our Great Leader's Navy doesn't sink them and blame the losses on bad weather.
Maybe we'll be able to listen to Radio Free America. But we'll have to hide the radios from Our Great Leader's Storm Trooper Police Forces.
замполит ("zampolit" -- "political officer")
@CenTexTim,
"The media already reports what and how the obama administration wants them to."
Too True, but there are those few pesky news outlets that just refuse to kiss O'Liar's butt, and persist in trying to tell the real story. If this program actually takes root, in a year or two we will only see the CIN "researchers" posted at Fox News and the like. The "researchers" will proclaim that the NYT, WaPo, Chicago Times, SF Chronicle, and such are all doing such a wonderful job, they no longer need "research."
What's sort of ironic about this is the fact that uber liberal newspapers are already going bankrupt in droves, so the only papers that will "need" researchers will be the successful ones. Or maybe I should say they used to be the successful ones.
Obama... The Quicker Fucker-upper. (my favorite bumper sticker).
This all may be just an attempt to assuage the ratings plummet being experienced by the likes of CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, etc. If the "researchers" "level the playing field" by making them all report the same, then they can ALL have the same ratings! You know: spreading the ratings around! And, much like the similar efforts to "spread the wealth around", when they all experience ratings in the dumper, they'll be so, so surprised, and blame the evil rich for taking their rating out of the market...
Just when you think you've heard it all, they pull something like this. When I first heard about this, I honestly thought it was just extreme paranoia from the extreme right end of the Fox-o-sphere. Wow, was I wrong.
I thought that this kind of thing was only supposed to happen under fascists like John Ashcroft, or in Soviet Russia. Or at least, that's what I was supposed to believe a bit over a dozen years ago. My only question is where are all the hyperbolic liberals to be found when an administration actually tries to do this kind of stuff?
@Geoff King nails it. Whenever totalitarians take over, the first thing they go for is the media, be they newspapers, radio, TV or now the Internet.
@WMD, we hit the "tipping point" when 50% of the nation began receiving checks from the government back in the '90s.
Speaking of other absurdities, I almost crashed when I heard Obama declare another "line drawn" in the Ukraine the other day. Brain froze as it was unable to decide whether to laugh or cry. Does he honestly want this to be a joke? So much of the "international reset".
Meanwhile, as Kiev burns, Syria further deteriorates, the workers paradise of Venezuela implodes, and half of America continues being buried under snow and ice, our inverted-phase Secretary of State goes on about on about how "global warming" is the real problem we should be laser-focused on.
At least Hillary had balls.
@Readers- Great comments above. Time doesn't allow me to make individual replies today, but I'm certainly reading everything.
This FCC program strikes me as the thin edge of a very, very bad wedge. There is NO reason for this "fact finding initiative" other than to pave the way for controlling the content of the media. Not exactly a subtle attack on the First Amendment.
A couple of other quick notes: the choice of photo from the film "Brazil" was certainly intentional; it's a magnificent film, with an entirely believable dystopian vision. The same is true for "Idiocracy," in a less artful but no-less-enjoyable way.
The bloodletting in Ukraine is appalling and Obama has much to answer for: it is his weakness which is encouraging many bad actors to run wild while the United States is toothless. Great pieces in today's Wall Street Journal about this, by the way.
One additional note: yesterday I found out that Col. Allen West shared Wednesday's cartoon (the one with Sebelius) on his blog and on his FB page. Needless to say, I was thrilled.
The idea was born from Jim Clyburn's daughter "Mignon" - the comic strip writes itself ..what a "meathead."
Good going on being picked up by Col. West, Stilt!
Looks like the FCC is already backing down: http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/02/fcc-throws-out-plan-to-question-reporters-about-news-coverage/
Lefties in the press are cretins of habit.
Hmm and perhaps as part of this "study" these "monitors" could take cues from the North Korean news agency on how to correctly report the "news"
@Sadie- A lot of these strips write themselves - which is handy for me, but not so good for our country.
@Sarah Rolph- Yay! It now seems that the FCC has decided not to pursue the program after all the public outcry.
Which, frankly, only reaffirms to me that they were up to no good. If the program was harmless and essential, then all they had to do was defend it. But if it couldn't bear scrutiny - and raised questions about how the data would be used and what controls the FCC planned for the future of news - then it was necessary to push the thing back into the shadows. For now.
@Dave Wallace- "Cretins of habit" is my favorite phrase of the day. Nice!
@Anonymous- I'm sure that a visit to North Korea was on the FCC's checklist. Or at least a long consultation with Dennis Rodman.
So now the "program" won't be an information-finding plan and it will be "quietly" imposed on any news source that slams Barack Hussein. There was much about the program that was an attempt to give the FCC control over the print media anyway, but I'm surprised that part was so well hidden. NOT!
Hell to the Chief.
Relax, this is simply an extension of the White Houses HR dept's highly succesful and much hailed 'Media to the White House' recruiting program. With the draw down in the media this program will allow media types to transition seamless into the White House and back again if needed. (in the rare event a WH press release does not cover all the info we are deemed needed to know)
So relax people, nothing to see here, just move along.
Doesn't this remind you of the political officers, the Zampolit, that the old Soviet Union used to impose upon their military leaders in the field?
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