Last week, one of my colleagues shared with you:
An FCC commissioner Ajit Pai wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, warning about a plan that his agency is rolling out that would put monitors in the nation’s newsrooms. News managers and staffers would be interviewed by agency officials about the content that they choose to report on and how they choose certain stories. According to Pai, here are some of the questions that will be asked of these managers and staffers:
What is the news philosophy of the station?
How do you define critical information that the community needs?
Who decides which stories are covered?
Have you ever suggested coverage of what you consider a story with critical information for your customers (viewers, listeners, readers) that was rejected by management?
From Fox News:
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 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.”
The alarm went out to numerous conservative groups across the nation. Many of them urged you, the American people to speak out against Obama’s attack on the First Amendment right of free speech and a free press. Thousands of you responded and you voices have been heard.
On Friday, the FCC issued the following statement:
“However, in the course of FCC review and public comment, concerns were raised that some of the questions may not have been appropriate. Chairman Wheeler agreed that survey questions in the study directed toward media outlet managers, news directors, and reporters overstepped the bounds of what is required. Last week, Chairman Wheeler informed lawmakers that that Commission has no intention of regulating political or other speech of journalists or broadcasters and would be modifying the draft study. Yesterday, the Chairman directed that those questions be removed entirely.”
“To be clear, media owners and journalists will no longer be asked to participate in the Columbia, S.C. pilot study. The pilot will not be undertaken until a new study design is final. Any subsequent market studies conducted by the FCC, if determined necessary, will not seek participation from or include questions for media owners, news directors or reporters.”
This is a huge victory for the American people and it’s all due to thousands of you who took a stand and spoke out against the FCC study which I believe to be a guise for Obama’s plan to suppress free speech and the free press.
Time and again I hear people say that it doesn’t matter what we saw or do against the government, they won’t listen. To be honest, I’ve said that about certain businesses who support homosexuality and the destruction of Christian and family values. But let this show you that our combined and united voices can make a difference.
For too long, the only voices being heard in Washington DC have been those of the liberal minority. Gay activists, atheists, socialists and those that hate America have been screaming for their ways and Washington has been listening to them. But this victory over the FCC should be a rallying cry for Christians and conservatives to make our voices heard on many of the dire issues that now face us. We need to let Congress and the rest of Washington know that we are finally going to stand up for our rights and make our voices heard and we are going to take our nation back from the liberals who are bent on destroying it.
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