Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Trump Threatens to Play the FCC Card Against NBC
Damn! And he was having such a good day, too…
But instead of talking about his travel-ban win in the Supreme Court or the NFL caving on anthem protests or the fact that whackjob lefties are still trying to kill the jobs created by the Keystone XL pipeline, Trump had to say this:
Gee, Mr. President, at what point is it appropriate to use the power of federal regulations to punish a media outlet for criticizing you? I think most small-government conservatives would answer “Never.” Or “Absolutely not!” Or, to be a bit more accurate, “Are you out of your mind?!”
And others would be really upset…
As with all things Trump, I assume that I’m completely wrong and that there’s a win here that I am congenitally incapable of grasping. So perhaps a pro-Trump person could explain in the comments below how a POTUS talking this way is good for conservatives, Republicans, a free press, or pretty much anything else.
Because I know how the Talk-Right currently backing Trump would have responded if, say, Nancy Pelosi had called for the return of the so-called “Fairness Doctrine.” Or how they would respond if President Obama and his administration had repeatedly attacked Fox News as “not really news.” I know — because I watched it happen.
So please explain to me the connection between “conservatism” and “powerful government agent threatens the use of federal regulatory power to silence his critics.”
Because it sounds an awful like what the Talk-Right used to hate about the Obama Left.
Published in Entertainment, Politics, Sports
The Federal government is obligated to allocate spectrum so is it unconstitutional to try to impose some rules, order? Certainly it is constitutional to use the bully pulpit to criticize, indeed probably required. Some countries open it for bids, bidders undertake programming as well as financial obligations. Our goal should be to find ways to make these things market conforming, like magazines. We don’t care what kind of garbage is out there as long as we don’t have to buy it and it can’t be brought into our homes without our say. Perhaps we need to visit the entire question. We don’t want monopolies whether private or public controlling the content of our media and these are natural monopolies because the marginal costs are zero. There are models out there in the digital world. Net-flicks, Amazon, pay per view. The networks are obsolete. The cable channels probably are as well because one is forced to buy things one does not want.
In the words of Ed Koch, I can explain this for you, but I can’t comprehend it for you.
The president doesn’t have the power to do this now. Congress shall pass no law to do it, both because it is idiotic and because it violates the First Amendment. And even if they did, the Supreme Court would wad it up into a tight little ball and round-file it.
Don’t defend the stoopid.
Get my full take on Trump vs First Amendment–and why the reaction from the Right is so disappointing–in today’s podcast.
Click to listen..and thanks!
The FCC has long exercised its authority to prohibit the broadcasting of indecent material. Why would it not also have the authority to prohibit the broadcasting of false material, should it choose to promulgate such a rule? One could easily argue that disseminating falsehoods is more detrimental to the public interest than disseminating indecency.
The democrats have been jailing republicans. They have been ransacking their homes. They have used the IRS to intimidate and jail people for their politics. I don’t recall anyone being punished for these acts.
We are no longer a nation of laws and hope will not bring that back. I used to always think that we must always do what is right, and I still do. But did anyone go to jail for illegally harassing Governor Walker and his people? Did anyone go to jail for the IRS scandal, which almost no one knows about?
There is something rotten in politics, more than the usual amount. We no longer have termites undermining decorative trim. Wrecking balls have taken down structural supports.
We have a Supreme Court that thinks a free people can be forced to buy insurance. There’s not a lot of hope left.
If Trump destroys the idea of communism/progressivism and its popularity, then I hope we can return to a rule of law, but until the progressives are stopped and jailed for their crimes, it’s war. And all is fair.
I regret that I have but 1 like to give.
I’m just going to put this here for a while.
https://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2017/10/11/fake-news-a-misquote-from-gabriel-sherman-with-chris-hayes-is-making-the-rounds-and-its-bad/
Talk about (dis)servicing the public.
Truth … as determined by government employees? They wouldn’t know “truth” if you intaglioed it on a 2×4 and beat them all over the head with it.
Not that that wouldn’t be a whole lot of fun …
I think you’re underestimating the inherent powers of an independent regulatory agency like the FCC. The determination of “truth” (or “indecency”) would be the result of a hearing before an agency administrative law judge and a vote by the members of the Commission. Over-the-air broadcasters have their First Amendment rights severly attenuated by virtue of their use of the public airwaves, with a five-member commission in the position of prime attenuator. Folks in the broadcast industry know this, which is why Trump’s tweet has them upset.
I couldn’t disagree more. Politics isn’t “war,” and when it becomes war, we’re lost. Republicans aren’t being thrown in jail for being Republicans, and the values of the Constitution are far bigger than any candidate or party. What–you have to destroy the Constitution to save it? Over crappy cable news coverage?
Let me pretzel-ize this for you. The Don just put the question out there. That’s all. And “Bad for the Country” just means doing so would be a bad thing. See? Fixed it for you.
Crappy network news coverage, please.
While you might be literally correct with regard to jail, in your zeal you must have missed the John Doe investigations in Wisconsin.
Or the speech suppression in the IRS Tea Party scandal.
But hey, focus on a Trump Tweet, that’ll learn em.
Who is this ‘we’?
The other side eschews firearms.
I think that you are overestimating the speed with which government entities move. Instead of “news,” we’ll have “six week old pasteurized pap.” No, thanks. I’d rather rely on my own bull poop detector.
I’m familiar with these scandals, and more. Obama’s prosecution of a NYTimes reporter, the “unmasking” scandal. But nobody is in jail in the US for being a Republican. Meanwhile our civic institutions are still working. The voters sent a message by electing Obama, and then by electing Trump. The courts are working about as well as possible under our system. Obama and Trump have been stopped.
So instead of abandoning the Constitution–and the hard work of politics–with a bogus cry of “war,” let’s get off our butts and get to work.
D’Souza was jailed. They have tried to prosecute numerous republicans to put them in jail.
I had forgot about him. I even went to see his movie about the experience.
Good point @skyler
This is Trump’s “Fairness Doctrine.”
I thought I said “personal behavior,” but maybe I didn’t make that clear.
The truest thing I heard this week came from Rex Tillerson.
D’Souza broke a law (petty ante stuff, I agree, but still…) Giving up on democracy is lazy and self-destructive. Persuading people is hard and results in true progress. In other words, this stuff works like the rest of live does.
And Hillary Clinton didn’t? Or the head of the irs? Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime?