-Update: FCC Commissioner Responds to Media Monitor Proposal?
by Dr. D ~ February 21st, 2014
A firestorm of controversy raged for over a week when FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai in a Wall Street Journal article revealed that an agency study suggested that the FFC put monitors in every major newsroom across America. Now the Commissioner makes it plain that he opposes the idea. From Breitbart:
Pai dismissed the merits of the study commissioned by the FCC.
"So the study was designed and adopted under previous leadership and I think the reaction that you have is one that a lot of people in America have and that is that government doesn’t have a place in the newsroom," Pai said. "One of the things that has made this country great is fact that news outlets decide for themselves what stories to cover and how to cover them. And especially in a marketplace as competitive as this one, they don’t need the government over their shoulders telling them that they’re doing something wrong."
Response: One question- Is Pai merely giving his own opinion here or is he speaking for the Obama administration? If this was a trial balloon it exploded shortly after its launch. What makes the proposal so scary is the fact it seems to be in character with some of President Obama’s comments about the fairness of the media particularly in his recent interview with Fox’s Bill O’Reilly. *Top
