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Letters from House members to cable providers [pdf]

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Re: Letters from House members to cable providers [pdf]

#2
Is there any difference between the ~12 copies of the same letter in this PDF?

But to the point, this is chilling. The last administration started down a dangerous precedent of claiming some news sources were less entitled to their right to exist. Just because I happen to agree that the channels being targeted here are garbage doesn't mean I think we should allow the government to make that decision.

Re: Letters from House members to cable providers [pdf]

#3
I suppose they mean disinfo and not misinfo?

seems like a slippery slope when one can't trust their own people to be able to distinguish between facts/non-facts, so much that one needs laws to ban certain types of content and prevent it from being seen. makes me wonder if this will not even cause further conspiracy and drive traffic to alternative (underground e.g. outlawed) information channels

pretty hard to draw a line especially in relation to satire/comedy etc. There is no point of irony/satire if it has to be labeled as such.

Re: Letters from House members to cable providers [pdf]

#4
"How many of your subscribers tuned in to Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN on U-verse, DirecTV, and AT&T TV for each of the four weeks preceding the November 3, 2020 elections and the January 6, 2021 attacks on the Capitol? Please specify the number of subscribers that tuned in to each channel."

Does this strike anyone else as a nakedly partisan move?

Re: Letters from House members to cable providers [pdf]

#6

"How many of your subscribers tuned in to Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN on U-verse, DirecTV, and AT&T TV for each of the four weeks preceding the November 3, 2020 elections and the January 6, 2021 attacks on the Capitol? Please specify the number of subscribers that tuned in to each channel ." Does this strike anyone else as a nakedly partisan move?

Yes.

Re: Letters from House members to cable providers [pdf]

#7
post #2

Is there any difference between the ~12 copies of the same letter in this PDF? But to the point, this is chilling. The last administration started down a dangerous precedent of claiming some news sources were less entitled to their right to exist. Just because I happen to agree that the channels being targeted here are garbage doesn't mean I think we should allow the government to make that decision.

Its a press release so each representative has to have their own letter so they can distribute it as a press release. It is fairly typical.

Using the government to suppress opposing views is the very definition of tyranny. Anytime people talk about a "reset" the populace suffers.

Re: Letters from House members to cable providers [pdf]

#8

"How many of your subscribers tuned in to Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN on U-verse, DirecTV, and AT&T TV for each of the four weeks preceding the November 3, 2020 elections and the January 6, 2021 attacks on the Capitol? Please specify the number of subscribers that tuned in to each channel ." Does this strike anyone else as a nakedly partisan move?

Extremely

Re: Letters from House members to cable providers [pdf]

#9
It's a letter to AT&T that encourages them to do something about Fox and OANN. I'd say sure, do something about them, but let's also look inward.

There was a lot of misinformation abound after the Capitol Riots that was simply there to stir up Democrats and a lot of this information was very racially angled. Though Democrats play up the death of the Capital police officer now, their constituents were absolutely promoting conspiracy theories about the Capitol police doing nothing or the FBI intentionally not showing up. I won't begin to assess why conspiracy theories were abound when literal conspiracy theorists were invading the Capital, that's probably worth its own discussion. Put these concepts (racialized rhetoric and anti-police conspiracy theories) together and it's no wonder why the country broke for another day or two.

If you want to clean up Fox and OANN, I'm down, but let's make sure you're cleaning up all the grass roots sources of your constituents misinformation too.

Re: Letters from House members to cable providers [pdf]

#10

"How many of your subscribers tuned in to Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN on U-verse, DirecTV, and AT&T TV for each of the four weeks preceding the November 3, 2020 elections and the January 6, 2021 attacks on the Capitol? Please specify the number of subscribers that tuned in to each channel ." Does this strike anyone else as a nakedly partisan move?

It pretty much is and is a chilling attempt at limiting speech. Free press, is free press. CNN and MSNBC both spread their share of misinformation. You need to be able to watch multiple news sources with different takes in a free society, to determine whose wrong or whose omitting key facts in an attempt to frame the news.
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