Bone-Chilling Threat: FCC Exploring Plans to Place ‘Government Monitors’ in Newsrooms
Posted: February 19, 2014 Filed under: Censorship, Mediasphere | Tags: American Center for Law & Justice, FCC, Federal Communications Commission, Free speech, Freedom of the press, Obama administration, Tea Party, Thomas Jefferson, Wall Street Journal 5 CommentsThe American Center for Law and Justice‘s Matthew Clark reports: The Obama Administration’s Federal Communication Commission (FCC) is poised to place government monitors in newsrooms across the country in an absurdly draconian attempt to intimidate and control the media.
Peter Doocy reports from Washington, D.C.
Before you dismiss this assertion as utterly preposterous (we all know how that turned out when the Tea Party complained that it was being targeted by the IRS), this bombshell of an accusation comes from an actual FCC Commissioner.
FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai reveals a brand new Obama Administration program that he fears could be used in “pressuring media organizations into covering certain stories.”
As Commissioner Pai explains in the Wall Street Journal:
Last May the FCC proposed an initiative to thrust the federal government into newsrooms across the country. With its “Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs,” or CIN, the agency plans to send researchers to grill reporters, editors and station owners about how they decide which stories to run. A field test in Columbia, S.C., is scheduled to begin this spring.
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.”
In fact, the FCC is now expanding the bounds of regulatory powers to include newspapers, which it has absolutely no authority over, in its new government monitoring program.
The FCC has apparently already selected eight categories of “critical information” “that it believes local newscasters should cover.”
That’s right, the Obama Administration has developed a formula of what it believes the free press should cover, and it is going to send government monitors into newsrooms across America to stand over the shoulders of the press as they make editorial decisions.
This poses a monumental danger to constitutionally protected free speech and freedom of the press.
Every major repressive regime of the modern era has begun with an attempt to control and intimidate the press.
As Thomas Jefferson so eloquently said, “our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.”
The federal government has absolutely no business determining what stories should and should not be run, what is critical for the American public and what is not, whether it perceives a bias, and whose interests are and are not being served by the free press.
It’s an unconscionable assault on our free society…
The American Center for Law and Justice – crossposted on Red State – and YouTube
Join the ACLJ as we take a stand. Sign the ACLJ’s Petition to Stop the Obama FCC’s Free Speech Monitors.
Related articles
- Why is the Obama Administration Putting Government Monitors in Newsrooms? (patriotrising.com)
- “The Obama Administration’s Federal Communication Commission (FCC) is poised to place government monitors in newsrooms across the country in an absurdly draconian attempt to intimidate and control the media.” (thatrandomcandidate.com)
- -Obama Administration Has Plans to ‘Monitor’ Media Content? (answersforthefaith.com)
- FCC chairman should be replaced (dayontheday.com)
- Justice Group Warns of Obama Plan to Put Government Monitors in Newsrooms (tomfernandez28.com)
- Obama Plans to Put Government Monitors in Newsrooms (conservativebyte.com)
- FCC revamps controversial study of TV newsrooms (cjr.org)
- Freedom of the Press? FCC Plan to Place ‘Researchers’ in Newsrooms (joemiller.us)
- Obama’s State Run Media Begins This Spring (Video) (b4inmain.wordpress.com)
- Barack Obama and the End of the First Amendment (xbradtc.com)

Reblogged this on Brittius.com.
Reblogged this on The Grey Enigma.
The FCC does not legally control print media so where is your US Senator and US Congressional Rep?
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