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The Congress created the FCC. Congress determined the role of the FCC. The constitutional basis for the FCC is the commerce clause.
This voluntary study is not restricting anyone's freedoms.
You mean "not restricting" YET. They have to gather all their 'data' before they can move forward with any type of "restriction". They also didn't run this by the Congressional oversight committee until it was a done deal. There is more to the "back story" on this new "study" (that now is in backpedal mode). The current Chairman of the FCC did not put this proposal forward, it's a hold-over that the Acting Chairman spearheaded in mid 2013.
These are the Critical Information Needs they want to "study".
CIN - health
CIN - education
CIN - transportation
CIN - economic opportunities
CIN - environment
CIN - civic info
CIN - political info
It took some digging, but I finally found the "Study Proposal" - 78 pages long
The proposal is titled ”Research Design for the Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs,” and was released in April. The study was produced by a company called Social Solutions International, Inc.. SSI has been awarded hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars in federal contracts. Acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn said that the FCC has a “duty” to find out what news is being broadcast in the announcement she made on May 24, 2013. Mignon is the daughter of James Clybern, who is probably the loaded voice on the Left to bring back the "Fairness Doctrine".
There is a lot more to this proposed "study" than to just check out TV & Radio news content and who/what/when/why/where/how that content is given to the public. The proposal for the study shows that they are doing the same thing with Newsprint media, Internet Media AND Blogs -- and then they will go into 'target' neighborhoods to "study" the people who get their news, what media they participate in (Facebook, twitter, blogs, neighbors, church, organizations, family) .... you name it, they want to know it. The study also proposes questions about voting/politics and all this is connected to Census Data and Demographics .... if fact, Demographics is the first thing they have to determine about each and every step of the process. They have to discover the Demographics of all the employees of all of the News Media. It points out that the "interviews" with the Media employees should be 'secret' once the correct people to interview have been determined.
It's worth pointing out that the FCC and Obama Administration's first knee-jerk response to the outrage, or at least big concerns to their (now discovered) "study of critical information needs" was to claim it's all about "Jobs" and entry to media by small media business. I read those 78 pages of the proposal - jobs and small media business were never mentioned. They didn't exactly say why they wanted to do this "study" ...... can't say I blame them for that lack of explanation.
One last thing .... to do this "study" is going to take a long time and involved a lot of people. A big part of the 78 page proposal is about the methods, people, training & time. The oversight committee is putting 2+2 together and sent a letter to the FCC Chairman asking him why his organization is planning on hiring 98 new employees.
So, we've gone from obsessing about his birth certificate, to screaming about how the ACA was going to end life as we know it, to complaining about Benghazi, to getting bent out of shape about monitors. You right-wingers continue to embarrass yourselves. Frankly, I find it refreshing to know that you're not focusing on the enormous shortcomings of your party, as the GOP continues its free fall.
Much ado about nothing, this whole monitor bit.
Conservatives tend to have manufactured outrage more often than not. I'm not surprised they're opposed to this because many of them are opposed to the data the US census collects as well as the data that is collected regarding race/ethnicity on things from college admission and hiring. Data with facts is a conservative's enemy...
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The purpose of the CIN, according to the FCC, is to ferret out information from television and radio broadcasters about "the process by which stories are selected" and how often stations cover "critical information needs," along with "perceived station bias" and "perceived responsiveness to underserved populations."
Well, this is about the last straw from this administration! I'll be calling my Congressman, and Senators. Just to be sure they get the message that this is unacceptable, I'll fax them a follow up message.
This would seem to be a direct attack on the First Amendment. They have no authority to be "monitoring" the New Rooms in this way.
This is akin to using the IRS to silence conservative organizations through intimidation, harassment, and demands for extraordinary records and information not required of other groups. And this is about to be expanded to prevent voter information organizations from providing material on issues and elections.
So you can imagine my surprise when I discovered a Michigan health care facility, funded by federal tax dollars, blocked Fox News Channel from its waiting room television sets.
The president of Family Health Care directed staff to block Fox News after a board member complained about our network’s coverage of the Affordable Care Act, an employee told me.
“The board member complained that patients were turning the channel to Fox News,” said the employee who asked not to be identified for reasons related to the unemployment line. “They are pro-ObamaCare and they felt (Fox’s) stance did not mesh with our stance.”
Family Health Care is a private, non-profit business that operates community health centers in five Michigan towns. According to the employee, the health centers have ObamaCare facilitators on site to help people apply for the program.
I can't imagine the media not fighting this. I don't see where the FCC has the power to do that. They can regulate what goes across the airwaves, but I can't see where they have any authority to place a camera in a private building. What happens in the newsroom is much different from what goes on air.
How does this study restrict any right granted under the first amendment?
In the same way a guy with a white hood and a growling dog standing outside a polling station wouldn't actually stop anyone from voting.
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