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June 07, 2010
There Will Be No Freedom Left If Obama Gets His Way
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Journalism 'Reinvention' Smacks of Government Control, Critics Say
A list of potential policy recommendations to reinvent the field of journalism that has been compiled by the Federal Trade Commission is a "dangerous" overreach of power and a waste of taxpayer funds, critics of the project told FoxNews.com.
FTC officials began a project in May 2009 to consider the challenges the journalism industry faces in the digital age. The federal agency recently released a discussion draft titled "Potential Policy Recommendations to Support the Reinvention of Journalism," a 47-page document that outlines a major government push to rescue the country's flailing media platforms -- specifically newspapers, which have seen advertising revenues drop roughly 45 percent since 2000.
Among the numerous proposals mentioned in the document are:
-- the creation of a "journalism" division of AmeriCorps, the federal program that places 75,000 people with local and national nonprofit groups annually;
-- tax credits to news organizations for every journalist employed;
-- establishing citizenship news vouchers, which "would allow every American tax payer to allocate some amount of government funds to the non-profit media organization" of their choice;
-- increased funding for public radio and television;
-- providing grants to universities to conduct investigative journalism;
-- increased postal subsidies for newspapers and periodicals;
-- a 5 percent tax on consumer electronics, which would generate roughly $4 billion annually, to pay for increased public funding.
But some critics are voicing concerns about the draft document, saying that if the government has any influence over the Fourth Estate, it could lead to a dizzying web of conflicting interests and the eradication of independent journalism.
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"I find it dangerous for government to have a role in speech because the government gives and the government taketh away," Jeff Jarvis, an associate professor at the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism, told FoxNews
"I don't even understand why they're doing this," he said. "This document is an anti-competitive and even unconstitutional world view."
Cliff Kincaid, editor of Accuracy in Media, a Washington-based media watchdog group, questioned the "legal and constitutional justification" for the FTC's involvement .
Dan Gainor, vice president of business and culture for the Media Research Center, a Washington-based media watchdog group, put his take on the proposals more succinctly.
"The mere fact that they're holding these hearings is the beginning of the problem," Gainor said. "They should have no hand in the future of journalism."
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Wild Thing's comment.......
So we can expect this......This segment of the news is brought to you by Big Brother.
...smacks of government control.
Smacks of? Wrong. This is fundamentally and exclusively about government control of the press. Period.
Posted by Wild Thing at June 7, 2010 05:40 AM
Comments
Reinvention of news: All leftist, all the time! What censorship? There'll only be left/liberal "social justice" feel-good drivel or illegal racist hatespeech, what could be wrong with that?
Posted by: Anonymous at June 7, 2010 05:29 PM
Anonymous well done, thanks so much.
Posted by: Wild Thing at June 8, 2010 04:21 AM
