Saturday, September 12, 2009

The FCC, a Worthless Commission Not Deserving of My Tax Dollars



A few posts ago, I wrote that I would leave the Republicans alone, while I attempted to focus on what appeared to be a faltering resolve on the part of Democrats who were swept in by American exhaustion and frustration with Conservative economic and foreign policy in the last election cycles. I reasoned, incorrectly, that ignoring the GOP’s childish attempts at disinformation and obstruction and instead focusing on the actual policies and bills under proposal and supporting real change was the best course of action.

I reckoned, incorrectly, that taking the high road was the only option.

I was naïve, and I was a fool. Our President and his administration, (especially Rahm Emmanuel) have also been naïve and foolish to sit and trust that the truth and the facts of any matter will ever get out in our country.

How can anyone in this nation expect their owns words to “speak for themselves” when there are demagogues and gang leaders, (Yes, in my opinion, I consider people like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck to be no different than gang leaders) not reporting, but lying about what has been said?

Lying.

Not opining, not editorializing, not commenting, but actually lying and saying that things were said that were not said by anyone.


Most Americans shrug, thinking there is nothing that can be done when people on TV or the web lie.

My solution, and I hope you’ll help me fight for it is simple: America has to force the FCC do it’s job.

Whenever a news outlet, “News” Channel, Newspaper, Magazine, Radio show, News website, blog or other media vehicle pronounces a lie, misstates a fact, they must be fined 30% percent of the ad revenue generated and 30% of subscription revenue generated unless they give equal time and space to correcting said lie, or misstatement. Blogs and other websites get a three strikes rule, 3 lies and they’re out-unless they give equal space to the facts as they are. Period.

This is not an attack on the freedom of speech, because the freedom of speech is not a right to lie. Lying is not self-expression. Lying is an assault on reality, and when it happens in the news? It’s a threat to national security and our society at large.

The First Amendment does not protect Sean Hannity’s lying about the President. When Sean Hannity purposefully (or due to his theoretical and likely calculated ineptitude) gets the facts wrong and insists on TV that the President "said tonight that insurance executives are bad people" in referring to the Presidential Capitol Hill address of September 9, 2009 there should be immediate consequences.

In fact, our President said “…it makes it easier for insurance companies to treat their customers badly, by cherry-picking the healthiest individuals and trying to drop the sickest, by overcharging small businesses who have no leverage, and by jacking up rates. Insurance executives don't do this because they're bad people; they do it because it's profitable.”
Here’s Sean Hannity’s lie about what the President said, so you don’t have to take my word for it:



This repeated, daily lying by the Right wing media apparatus can only be remedied by exact instances in allotted space and time of the facts being spoken as they are. The FCC, if it was worth anything at all as a regulating body, would force Sean Hannity to correct this lie immediately.

But it won’t unless we make them do it. The FCC won’t do a thing unless Americans show them that we care more about “News” channels lying to us than we do about Janet Jackson’s nipple, or someone cursing at the Grammy’s.

I am asking you the reader, for the first and only time, that you please forward a link to this post, or better yet, write to the FCC at the link below and tell them what you know and how you feel:

Simply click here

Glenn Beck’s right. We need to take our country back, --from Rupert Murdoch.

-SJ

2 comments:

Jack Jodell said...

VERY well said, SJ! I share your anger with the dishonest peddlers of hyperbole who are all over Fox "News" and to a lesser degree and frequency on other networks. For his obvious bald-faced lie about Obama saying insurance execs are bad, Hannity should be fined $5 million and Fox's license should be revoked for a full day. I like your 30% fine idea too, and your correct description of liars assaulting reality.

In addition to paying gigantic fines, habitual liars like Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, Malkin, Coulter, and all the rest of these pirates ought to do 100 hours community service in the nation's poorest ghettos for every single offense. The FCC has to stop mollycoddling these liars!

SJ said...

@Jack,
Community service at least, but I'll settle for mandatory retractions that are as detailed as the lies in question.

"There oughtta be a law"

-SJ