Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

FCC chairman Julius Genachowski agrees to remove Fairness Doctrine from rulebook

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread
This topic is archived.
Home » Discuss » General Discussion Donate to DU
 
Playinghardball Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-11 10:17 AM
Original message
FCC chairman Julius Genachowski agrees to remove Fairness Doctrine from rulebook
Source: Raw Story
By Eric W. Dolan

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski said Monday he will strike the Fairness Doctrine from the agency's rulebook under pressure from House Republicans.

"I fully support deleting the Fairness Doctrine and related provisions from the Code of Federal Regulations, so that there can be no mistake that what has been a dead letter is truly dead," Genachowski wrote in a letter (PDF) to House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI).

The chairman said the rule, which required broadcasters to present opposing views of controversial issues, "holds the potential to chill free speech and the free flow of ideas and, accordingly, was properly abandoned." The rule was introduced in 1949, but the FCC ceased enforcing it in 1987. However, the doctrine is still technically on the agency's rulebooks.

The letter was in response to concerns from House Republicans that the Fairness Doctrine could be revived in the future.

More at: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/06/08/fcc-chairman-julius-genachowski-agrees-to-remove-fairness-doctrine-from-rulebook/
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
snappyturtle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-11 10:20 AM
Response to Original message
1. Great.
:sarcasm:

Chill free speech? More like support for full-time propanganda. imho
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
ProSense Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-11 10:24 AM
Response to Original message
2. Senator Kerry was a big supporter of the Fairness Doctrine.
There were those who advocated that it could be updated to reflect the current environment, but others wanted it scrapped.

Jack Balkin saw it as "bad policy."
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Poll_Blind Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-11 10:25 AM
Response to Original message
3. You can always COUNT ON OBAMA!
:bounce:

Thanks for the appointment, Mr. President!

PB
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
stockholmer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-11 10:33 AM
Response to Original message
4. this is a bit of good news for a change, hat-tip to Mssrs. Obama and Genachowski
Free speech yes, corporate fascists (on 'both' sides) no. Next up they need to repeal so many of the noxious parts of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, such as it's scrapping the ownership caps on huge firms.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
The Doctor. Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-11 10:37 AM
Response to Reply #4
6. Do you know what you're talking about?

Do you know what license the removal of the doctrine has given the corporations?

Do you realize how silly it is to suggest that 'both sides' have 'fascist corporations'?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
KittyWampus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-11 10:39 AM
Response to Reply #6
9. sounds like sarcasm.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
The Doctor. Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-11 10:56 AM
Response to Reply #9
12. I hope so.
It sounded pretty sincere though.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
stockholmer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-11 11:16 AM
Response to Reply #6
14. do you realize that the US government IS the politico-corporate arm of the systemic controllers?
I will deal with your 2nd issue first. BOTH sides, of course support corporate fascism, and I only need mention 3 things from the so-called US left to prove this- (1) the horrid, for-profit insurance and medical industry-written health care 'reform' bill, (2) the UTTER lack of banker prosecutions when they have clearly committed theft and fraud and systemic damage in the trillions, and (3) absolute failure to reel in the war machine which is expanding even as I type - ie. war number 4 in Yemen.

Now, as far s my original statement.

I for one am so glad when any government stays out of censuring/defining speech. First it would be the telly, and radio, next the web, etc. The giant private corporations use their 'bought-and-paid-for' government to quash competition from up and coming small and mid-size businesses as well as dissenting voices.

Read New Left historian Gabriel Kolko in his book "The Triumph of Conservatism: A Reinterpretation of American History, 1900-1916.

In it, he lays out a case for the rise of modern corporatist system during the Progressive Era.
This in turn, allows for the violation of a large principle – No socialization of losses and privatization of gains (ie. the confluence of big business and big government in a mutual reinforcement pincer action).

http://www.amazon.com/Triumph-Conservatism-Gabriel-Kolk...

Kolko was soon joined by other New Left historians such as William Appleman Williams in challenging the reigning "corporate liberal" orthodoxy. Rather than "the people" being behind these "progressive reforms," it was the very elite business interests themselves responsible, in an attempt to cartelize, centralize and control what was impossible due to the dynamics of a competitive and decentralized economy.

.............in advancing the corporate liberalism idea whereby the old Progressive historiography of the "interests" versus the "people" was reinterpreted as a collaboration of interests aiming towards stabilizing competition . According to Grob and Billias, "Kolko believed that large-scale units turned to government regulation precisely because of their inefficiency" and that the "Progressive movement - far from being antibusiness - was actually a movement that defined the general welfare in terms of the well-being of business". Kolko, in particular, broke new ground with his critical history of the Progressive Era. He discovered that free enterprise and competition were vibrant and expanding during the first two decades of the twentieth century; meanwhile, corporations reacted to the free market by turning to government to protect their inherent inefficiency from the discipline of market conditions. This behavior is known as corporatism, but Kolko dubbed it "political capitalism." Kolko's thesis "that businessmen favored government regulation because they feared competition and desired to forge a government-business coalition" is one that is echoed by many observers today . Former Harvard professor Paul H. Weaver uncovered the same inefficient and bureaucratic behavior from corporations during his stint at Ford Motor Corporation (see Weaver's The Suicidal Corporation <1988>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Kolko

http://users.crocker.com/~acacia/kolko.html

http://miltenoff.tripod.com/Kolko.html

http://www.stateofnature.org/liberalElitesAnd.html


Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
The Doctor. Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-11 11:39 AM
Response to Reply #14
18. I'm more than aware, thank you.

And when I'm talking about 'sides', I'm not talking about 'Democrats' and 'Republicans'. I'm talking about pro-corporate (all Republicans) and anti-corporate (4 Democrats).
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
ProSense Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-11 10:38 AM
Response to Reply #4
7. "Free speech yes, corporate fascists (on 'both' sides) no."
Are you saying people who supported the Fairness Doctrine are fascists?

Really?


Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
stockholmer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-11 11:47 AM
Response to Reply #7
19. I'm saying that they are working in support of a corporate fascistic state,yes (see my reply above)
Once the power of regulation of speech is given to a government that is run on a corporatist 'continuity of agenda' model, then the tools of choking off dissenting voices from whatever side is NOT in power are unleashed. Both sides already set up the system where only 6 monster corporations (Viacom, Disney, GE, News Corp, Time Warner, CBS) dominate 90% of your media. http://www.freepress.net/ownership/chart/main

Now, this would be exacerbated by the same puppet government determining what is fair and what is not. Hello further retrenchment of the false left-right paradigm already suffocating th nation.

Not only would you be horrified if the Republicans had control of the Presidency, the House, and Senate and turned the guns on the Democrats in a 'manner unforeseen' (that phrase always comes up when the chips are down and a 'big lie' is laid out) by 'Fairness Doctrine' supporters, but also anything outside of the mainstream CORPORATE (dare I say fascist) discourse will NEVER get a seat at the table of ideas.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
The Doctor. Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-11 10:34 AM
Response to Original message
5. 1987...
Seems about the time bullshit started to freely spread through the airwaves.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
KittyWampus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-11 10:38 AM
Response to Original message
8. I hear someone playing Taps on the trumpet in the background.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
progressoid Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-11 10:43 AM
Response to Original message
10. Jesus H. "under pressure from House Republicans"
Why do they always cave "under pressure from House Republicans"?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
hifiguy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-11 11:23 AM
Response to Reply #10
16. It's what they were hired to do
There has never, not for one moment, ever been any intention to stand up to the repukes. See Boosh tax cuts, cave on the public option, cave on financial reform, refusal to get Elizabeth Warren into her consumer protection office, Gitmo still open, military tribunals (a/k/a kangaroo courts) back in action, etc, etc, etc ad infinitum.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Lint Head Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-11 10:48 AM
Response to Original message
11. No. Lets not be fair in this country.
:sarcasm:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Dennis Donovan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-11 11:00 AM
Response to Original message
13. You can have a fairness doctrine but if you don't regulate media ownership...
...a fairness doctrine won't mean shit.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
stockholmer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-11 11:55 AM
Response to Reply #13
20. +1, & I argue that the same forces that gave those corportations the control they have would subvert
the Fairness Doctrine into a tool of tyranny as well.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
truebrit71 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-11 11:21 AM
Response to Original message
15. Just making it official...love the fact that they caved to the repukes...again...
..and I am totally baffled how requiring broadcasters to present opposing views "holds the potential to chill free speech and the free flow of ideas"...It seems to me that it would actually STIMULATE free speech and ENCOURAGE the free flow of ideas, but then again I don't speak Orwell-ese...
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Horse with no Name Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-11 11:25 AM
Response to Original message
17. The republicans are just afraid that some liberal judge might see the wording
and force them to uphold the Fairness Doctrine.

Can't have that, can we?

And of course...obama capitulated to their request.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view 
this author's profile Click to add 
this author to your buddy list Click to add 
this author to your Ignore list Mon Apr 29th 2024, 03:17 PM
Response to Original message
Advertisements [?]
 Top

Home » Discuss » General Discussion Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators


Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC