The First Amendment forbids Congress from
infringing on Americans' right to free speech.
But the Federal Communications Commission is not
Congress. And Michael Copps, one of
four
FCC commissioners
reporting to Chairman Julius Genachowski, seems
intent on ignoring that pesky part of the First
Amendment about "abridging the freedom of
speech" when that speech is sent out over the
airwaves.
In
two
American Thinker
articles
earlier this year, I discussed possible FCC
attempts to force progressive programming into
broadcast media. Now, in addition to a nasty
Christmas present that Genachowski wants to give
Americans on December 21 (Net
Neutrality),
Copps wants government to control private-sector
broadcast content.
In a December 2
speech, Copps proposed that the FCC
conduct a "public value test" of commercial
broadcast stations.
If a station passes the Public Value
Test, it of course keeps the license it
has earned to use the people's airwaves.
If not, it goes on probation for a year,
renewable for an additional year if it
demonstrates measurable progress. If the
station fails again, give the license to
someone who will use it to serve the
public interest.
Stations that don't comply with FCC demands
would lose their licenses to organizations
willing to do the agency's bidding.
The "Public Value Test" didn't fly
extemporaneously from Copps's lips. Since
Barack Obama became president, there have
been growing noises about reinstituting the
effects of the repealed
Fairness Doctrine without calling any
new regulation by that name. Progressives
long to stop the resurgence of traditional
American values that has taken place after
two years of economy-killing,
freedom-robbing Obama rule. Republicans blew
out Democrats in the midterm election.
Lefties are in quite a state, desperate to
shut down opposition speech.
Silencing opponents is precisely what
one 2007 Center for American Progress
study was about. The study, conducted by
a group of progressive ideologues including
FCC Diversity Czar Mark Lloyd, complained of
91 percent of talk radio being conservative.
Lloyd and company praised the "more
balanced" programming "in markets such as
New York and Chicago." The authors' choice
to call two of America's bluest cities
demographically "balanced" is an indicator
of the study's dishonesty.
Copps seems to have read Lloyd's study. In
his December 2 speech, the commissioner
focused on
seven areas in which the Public Value
Test could be applied. Many of the proposed
tactics would force the progressive voice
over the airwaves and reduce the presence of
conservative and libertarian voices.
Copps offers programs which allegedly
wouldn't intervene in "issues of content,"
but then he calls for federal "human and
financial resources going into news." No
clear thinker believes that once federal
money and employees start prowling the
innards of broadcast stations, federal
dictates on media content would not follow.
FCC efforts aimed at "Reflecting
Diversity," according to Copps, would
not be used to
explore "how poorly America's
minorities, women and other diversity
groups are faring on our broadcast
media." But then the commissioner
instantly complains that "people of
color own only about 3.6% of full-power
commercial television stations."
Americans are supposed to trust that the
man doesn't want the FCC to enforce
"diverse" station ownership?
Yet more revealing of intent, Copps
maintains that diversity encompasses "how
groups are depicted in the media -- too
often stereotyped and caricatured -- and to
what roles minorities and women have in
owning and managing media companies." So
will the FCC try to force broadcast media to
depict minorities differently? Copps says:
The FCC's Diversity Advisory
Committee has spent years providing us with
specific, targeted recommendations to
correct this injustice. How sad it is that
most of these recommendations have not been
put to a Commission vote. It is time to
right this awful wrong.
There is little doubt as to the objectives.
Copps's remarks scream "social justice." The
commissioner essentially prescribes that the
FCC supervise the remolding of the image of
minorities and people of color. It would be
naïve to think that if the tactic were
implemented, affirmative action on station
ownership would not come to pass.
Copps complains that "minorities are
ignored, and local self-expression becomes
the exception" when stations are run by
"mega companies" with "absentee owners" who
devalue programming diversity. Stations up
for relicensing should have to "take the
public pulse."
Progressives like Copps cannot help
themselves. Contempt for the free market
runs strong in the social engineer's psyche.
No one with business sense runs an
enterprise that has no hope of making money.
Enacted, Copps's plan to force "minority"
programming into communities is a guaranteed
broadcast station and job killer. FCC
regulations would join EPA regulations as
tools for pushing prosperity-murdering
progressivism.
Mr. Copps isn't done yet. The FCC should
force more "local programming" into
broadcast markets, says the commissioner.
Why? "Homogenized music and entertainment
from huge conglomerates constrains [sic]
creativity, suppresses [sic]
local talent, and detracts [sic]
from the great tapestry of our nation's
cultural diversity." If Houstonians won't
listen to a radio station that plays the
music of the Taigana tribe from Mongolia's
Hovsgol region in consideration of
transplanted tribe members living in the
area, then the FCC would presumably insist
that one or more stations broadcast sheep
bladder wind instrument melodies anyway.
Advertisers won't buy ad time. But
progressives have no use for sound
economics.
What will "local programming" guidelines
look like? Copps's words:
We should be working toward a solution
wherein a certain percentage of
prime-time programming -- I have
suggested 25 percent -- is locally or
independently-produced. Public Service
Announcements should also be more
localized and more of them aired in
prime-time, too.
"Independently-produced" is code for
ideologically tuned messages aimed at
voters. "Public service announcements" will
conform to FCC specifications --
indoctrination kicked up a notch.
One of the lowest points in the Copps speech
came when the commissioner called today's
left-wing public broadcasting "the jewel of
our media landscape." But two still lower
points occurred before Copps even opened his
mouth. The venue for the speech was the
Columbia University School of Journalism.
And Copps was introduced by left-wing PBS
icon Bill Moyers.