May 6th 2009

Dems’ Strange Search For News Independence

A

s the liberal Boston Globe, which always can be counted on for favors by John Kerry, struggles on the brink of insolvency, the Massachusetts Dem has suddenly become concerned about the nature of news sources, and the peoples’ ability to find the sort of news they like.

A Senate panel is looking at the plight of struggling newspapers in the digital era.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said Wednesday’s hearing on the future of journalism comes as many papers falter and new ways of delivering information multiply by the day.

Kerry said steps must be taken so the news media can stay diverse and independent. (USA Today)

Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, D-Natch!, jumped on the bandwagon, saying it would be cool if the feds could ease the liberal news media into a new non-profit sort of entity, to ensure that they could blather at will without having to worry about offending readers.

Isn’t this all interesting?  Here’s John Kerry’s position on diverse and independent media in June 2007:

Senator John Kerry is calling for reimposition of the fairness doctrine.

In a radio interview on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show, excerpted on YouTube, Senator Kerry said he thought the doctrine should return. Calling it one of the “most profound changes in the balance of the media,” he said conservatives have been able to “squeeze down and squeeze out opinion of opposing views. I think it has been a very important transition in the imbalance of our public dialog,” he said. (source)

And here’s Ben Cardin:

The government “has the responsibility” to make sure there are a “variety of opportunities for people to get information,” said Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.) when asked about the Fairness Doctrine at the Democratic Senatorial Committee election night party on Tuesday. (CNS)

So they want to legislate liberal media in at taxpayer expense (non-profit status would relieve newspapers of tax burdens), while legislating conservative media out (the fairness doctrine would destroy their appeal, driving away advertisers).

Isn’t it funny how the same goal - the desire for multiple voices in the media - can look so different in the eyes of a big-government, anti-free market liberals?  It’s more evidence of the Dems’ refusal to learn lessons from history.

Until a few decades ago, cities in America were served by multiple newspapers: Liberal, conservative, trashy, Catholic, black, suburban, capitalist, socialist, all touting the news in their own voice, appealing to subscribers who liked that voice. There was no call for fairness, because the free market provided enough choice.  And when this model started evolving into the next, there were no calls from Congress save newspapers.

The second model, one prevailing newspaper per city, occurred primarily because the market determined it.  The evening news on TV killed afternoon papers, and the morning news and rising production costs left room for only one print vehicle. Again, Congress sat back and watched it happen.

The third model was the consolidation of these papers into national chains.  Congress saw nothing to complain about; in fact, with each transformation, the conservative voice of print media became more muted, so the big government, interventionalist Dems in Congress sat back and enjoyed the show.

It’s time for the next model, and all indications are that it will be much more difficult to control, and not as favorable to one (liberal) party:  online journalism, citizen journalism (think Michael Yon), the return of small-circulation, single voice print papers, talk radio, live webcasts of government agency meetings, and other options are all in the wings, ready to replace (for better or worse) the big newspapers.

John Kerry, Ben Cardin, Nancy Pelosi and other fans of neutering talk radio could just sit back and let America choose what media it wants without their meddlesome fingers in the mix.  But that’s not why they got themselves elected.  They know what you need better than you do, and they’re out to prove their right … despite what history tells us.

[Post to Twitter]  [Post to Yahoo Buzz]  [Post to Digg]  [Post to StumbleUpon] 

Tags: , , ,

3 Comments »

February 26th 2009

A Stake Through The Heart … But Is It An Ash Stake?

V

ampire fiction fans know that it’s not enough to put just any stake through the heart of a vampire; it had better be a stake made of ash wood; otherwise, to borrow the Billy Crystal/Miracle Max line from Princess Bride, the vampire may be just mostly dead. (Hawthorn wood is acceptable in Serbia, oak in Silesia.)

Such is the case with the Fairness Doctrine, which got some kind of stake through its heart today when the Senate voted 87-11 in favor of an amendment to the DC voting-rights bill that would prohibit the FCC from reinstating the Fairness Doctrine.  (What does the Fairness Doctrine have to do with DC voting, you ask?  C’mon, this is Congress we’re talking about here.)

Michelle Malkin reports, though:

The DeMint amendment passes 87-11, but as Sen. DeMint Tweets: “Our ban on Fairness Doctrine passes 87-11. But fight not over, Dems have attacked from back door on media ownership, localism.”

That back door would be Turban Durbin’s amendment, which DeMint says …

… would achieve the same goals of the Fairness Doctrine through backdoor FCC regulations. His legislation forces the FCC to “take actions to encourage and promote diversity in communication media ownership,” an attempt to dismantle successful syndicated radio programs. The Durbin amendment would hurt small, local radio stations who depend on popular syndicated programming for listeners and revenue.

Whoa, hold on here Dickie. When the FCC dropped the Fairness Doctrine over 20 years ago it was because the agency found it no longer served a purpose since the public had a wide array of political news sources to choose from. In the mid-1980s! That was before cable, the Internet, blogs, Twitter and all the rest.

There is no rationale to bring it back - so be careful! That means irrational Dems are hard at work.

[Post to Twitter]  [Post to Yahoo Buzz]  [Post to Digg]  [Post to StumbleUpon] 

Tags:

No Comments yet »

February 8th 2009

Sunday, Rainy Sunday, Scan

Budget Office Has No Faith In Stimulus

T

he Congressional Budget Office, a non-partisan provider of economic analysis to Congress, isn’t the least bit optimistic about the effect of Porkasaurus on the economy. In fact, they see it as bad news:

President Obama’s economic recovery package will actually hurt the economy more in the long run than if he were to do nothing, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.

CBO, the official scorekeepers for legislation, said the House and Senate bills will help in the short term but result in so much government debt that within a few years they would crowd out private investment, actually leading to a lower Gross Domestic Product over the next 10 years than if the government had done nothing.

CBO estimates that by 2019 the Senate legislation would reduce GDP by 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent on net. [The House bill] would have similar long-run effects, CBO said in a letter to Sen. Judd Gregg, New Hampshire Republican, who was tapped by Mr. Obama on Tuesday to be Commerce Secretary. (WashTimes)

And what of all the jobs Obama says (models) his bill will create?  CBO dismisses the impact of Porkasaurus jobs on the economy as “minimal.” And that makes this comment from “Suggestions4Obama” particularly pathetic:

I do not understand why people are having diffculty understanding. The number of unemployed people (11.6 million) and the unemployment rate (7.6 percent) rose in January. Over the past 12 months, the number of unemployed persons has increased by 4.1 million. The Department of Labor reported today that nonfarm payroll employment fell sharply in January (-598,000) and the unemployment rate rose from 7.2 to 7.6 percent. Payroll employment has declined by 3.6 million since the start of the recession in December 2007, …. most of this mess happening only in past three months! And some wonder Obama is pushing so hard for a stimulus package. Is the Herbert Hoover approach, do nothing, all we need, leading us to a twelve year depression ??

Here’s the deal, S4O:  Simply stating the problem doesn’t make the stimulus a solution. Ask the guys in the photo - after all, the Depression got worse after FDR tried to spend his way out of it.

Continue reading “Sunday, Rainy Sunday, Scan”

[Post to Twitter]  [Post to Yahoo Buzz]  [Post to Digg]  [Post to StumbleUpon] 

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

No Comments yet »

With Obama winning the presidency by seven percent, we can't blame the media. Their laudatory coverage and refusal to extensively probe into Obama's background and [lack of] experience was at best responsible for five percent of his vote, the pundits tell us. Here is a compilation of over 100 significant instances of pro-Obama/anti-McCain bias during the 2008 campaign.

For all 'Media Bias 2008' – Click Here