FCC Push to Sovietize Broadcast Media in America

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
December 7, 2010

Back in June, we reported on a plan by the FCC and the feds to regulate content on the internet. Since that time, the agency that controls the broadcast communications medium “in the public interest” has proposed a scheme to regulate content sent out over the airwaves.

Call it the Son of the Fairness Doctrine.

FCC bureaucrat Copps tells BBC “American media has a bad case of substance abuse.”

Last week FCC Commissioner Michael Copps suggested broadcasters be subject to a new “public values test” every four years. Copps said that the test would make a broadcaster’s license renewal contingent upon evidence that they meet a prospective set of federal criteria.

Broadcasters would have to prove to the FCC and the government they have made a meaningful commitment to public affairs and news programming (as determined by the government). They would have to prove they are committed to diversity programming, report to the government about which shows they plan to air, require greater disclosure about who funds political ads and devote 25 percent of their prime-time coverage to local news, according to a story posted by The Hill.

In short, the FCC is moving toward a state-run media no different than the one in the Soviet Union and any number of crackpot dictatorships around the world.

Rep. Joe Barton of Texas asked Copps whether “five commissioners can do a better job of ensuring that Americans have access to a wide diversity of content and viewpoints than Americans can themselves by expressing their preferences … in the vigorously competitive marketplace.”

For the feds, of course, the move has nothing to do with making sure Americans have access to a wide diversity of content and viewpoints. The move by the FCC is a brazen attempt to shut down talk radio and mandate that television and radio stations broadcast government propaganda designed to combat free speech on the internet. Millions of Americans have tuned out the corporate media and now get their news from alternative news websites.