Fox Freakout ‘O the day
by digby
They’ve been rending their garments all day about this:
An Obama administration plan that would get researchers into newsrooms across the country is sparking concern among congressional Republicans and conservative groups.
The purpose of the proposed Federal Communications Commission study is to “identify and understand the critical information needs of the American public, with special emphasis on vulnerable-disadvantaged populations,” according to the agency.
However, one [Republican] agency commissioner, Ajit Pai, said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece Wednesday that the May 2013 proposal would allow researchers to “grill reporters, editors and station owners about how they decide which stories to run.”
He also said he feared the study might stifle the freedom of the press.
“The American people, for their part, disagree about what they want to watch,” wrote Pai, appointed to the FCC’s five-member commission in May 2012 by President Obama. “But everyone should agree on this: The government has no place pressuring media organizations into covering certain stories.”
Because any study inevitably leads to repression. Everyone knows that.
I am the first one to criticize the administration for its policies toward the press. They have a bad record. But honestly, conducting a study of what stories news stations are broadcasting seems pretty benign to me.
To the right wing this is just evidence of more gestapo tactics to get them to shut up — the mere presence of a researcher will lead to self-censorship out of fear of the FCC yanking their license (on what basis they don’t say.) That seems pretty far fetched to me. But then the wingnuts are still obsessing over the IRS non-scandal, insisting that they were specifically targeted despite the fact that all the evidence shows all political groups were targeted regardless of partisan or ideological affiliation.
But then, victimhood is all they’ve got really — a shocking story of an oppressed minority of vastly wealthy white men and the willing vassals who serve them. And there is no doubt that this is a story that’s getting out. Fox and talk radio flog it day in and day out.
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