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FCC asks stations for "pro-America" programming, like daily Pledge of Allegiance

arstechnica.com

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Re: FCC asks stations for "pro-America" programming, like daily Pledge of Allegiance

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? This is incredible if you don’t think a sizable portion of parents in America would force their children to say it.

I think it's slightly unbelievable to us who grew up in secular societies where being agnostic/atheistic/non-practing-believer is fairly common and not so out of the ordinary. Then we start hearing about the experiences in christian-nationalistic countries and how it is growing up there, and it's just very different from what you expect from a modern country. I'm guessing Aeolun might be from one of those places/coun…

I’ve never been Christian, but I have lived in the US my entire life, so I was always at least peripherally aware of “Christian culture”. I knew about Christian Rock and Christian movies, Christian video games, those weird Christian TV channels, etc. There has always been a distinct “Christian media” that is separate from the regular secular media.

For nearly my entire life, I had assumed that it was like this everywhere in the world, until I spent two weeks in the UK in 2022, when the topic of “Super Noah’s Ark 3D” came up (I believe because of a Steam sale).

The people I was with were extremely confused by the idea that there is a version of Wolfenstein 3D themed around Noah going around the ark firing food at goats, and I said “oh you know, it’s part of that whole Christian media culture”.

They had no idea what I was talking about, so I had to explain the weird dual media economy that exists in the US.

Kind of eye opening, I guess one of those stereotypical American things of assuming “everything is the US”.

Re: FCC asks stations for "pro-America" programming, like daily Pledge of Allegiance

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47095073

I’m a cynical person but this is a reach. There’s a huge gap between what this is and how I interpret “mandatory”. There’s nothing even punitive being discussed. They’re free to meet their public interest obligations the normal way as well and not participate in this. They could also participate in this in a rebellious way if they so pleased. “While we don’t agree with the FCC…. We do think this is an important miles…

> There’s nothing even punitive being discussed.

The article said Carr has repeatedly threatened to punish broadcast stations for violating the public interest standard.

> They’re free to meet their public interest obligations the normal way as well and not participate in this.

Carr's view of public interest included suspending Jimmy Kimmel for his criticism of Trump and other MAGA figures after Charlie Kirk was killed.[1]

> They could also participate in this in a rebellious way if they so pleased. “While we don’t agree with the FCC…. We do think this is an important milestone in our nation worth celebrating… not because the FCC told us to but because…”

There would be no reason to state disagreement unless they thought it was a threat. And it would have the effects of a child saying they will go to sleep but not because their parent told them to.

[1] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/after-jimmy-kimmels-sh...

Re: FCC asks stations for "pro-America" programming, like daily Pledge of Allegiance

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It reminds kids that they live in the United States, and that the country has values, and that they will be expected to defend the country as part of the social contract. I don't know if other countries have pledges like this but on the surface it seems OK to me. I think it also inspires worthwhile conversations about what we owe to the country (or not).

> that the country has values As I've never said "The Pledge of Allegiance", this seems to be the original one, I'm guessing there might be some other modern variation schools use today, but anyways: > I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I wouldn't be surprised that most people see it as a joke today, given the "with liberty a…

That one was modified some 75 years ago. Nowadays it's worse:

> I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

The flag is no longer yours. The Christian god, despite supposedly being a secular nation of differing religions, is the leading principle.

Re: FCC asks stations for "pro-America" programming, like daily Pledge of Allegiance

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With respect... the FCC is a regulatory agency. There is an obvious set of forcing functions here. It's not normal and is very concerning.

They're not a rulemaking agency. They're very tightly bound by an entire dedicated section of the US Title Code. More importantly licensees pledge to serve their _local_ communities and maintain _local_ standards. That's the entire well documented point of the license system. As such the FCC has very little actual authority over stations outside of general technical requirements of the radio broadcast itself and no a…

> They're not a rulemaking agency.

Does this phrase have non obvious meaning? They are an agency and make rules.[1]

> As such the FCC has very little actual authority over stations outside of general technical requirements of the radio broadcast itself and no authority over content unless prompted by local complaints.

To prompt local complaints would be trivial.

[1] https://www.fcc.gov/general/fcc-rulemaking

Re: FCC asks stations for "pro-America" programming, like daily Pledge of Allegiance

#165

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[flagged]

> Many of the clowns who throw shade on us from across the pond live in dystopian hellscapes... Rose tinted much? These are all fucking awful. The UK is bad because it took leaking of state secrets before Andrew proper action, being a paedo and involved in trafficking just means you have to move to an "out of the way mansion". At least now its getting the attention. But the US ignores the sitting president involvemen…

The former Prince Andrew is not in power. Makes it much easier to do something about him.

>And shoots unarmed people in the street.

The militants interfering with law enforcement? You don't know what you're talking about. You people also don't have guns to defend yourselves. You have broad knife bans and harass people for taking pictures with guns while on vacation lol...

> Most of the clowns throwing shade from the US ignore their hypocrisy.

No hypocrisy here. It's real funny how little you know about our country, or your own. You have completely been suckered by propaganda issued to destroy the West.

Re: FCC asks stations for "pro-America" programming, like daily Pledge of Allegiance

#166

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[flagged]

I took the comment as specifically referring to the fascist ideology being pushed by the current US administration.

There is no such ideology being pushed by the current administration. Both of you are wrong if you think that is happening.

Re: FCC asks stations for "pro-America" programming, like daily Pledge of Allegiance

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of people take for granted that their government exists and doesn't suck as bad as those in other places. Say what you want about it, but every successful country cultivates a national culture and identity. This is especially important for countries where the people are very heterogeneous in other identity facets. If people feel no particular affinity for the country because they are rarely encouraged to stop an…

> Lots of people take for granted that their government exists and doesn't suck as bad as those in other places. From the UK. Our government definitely sucks, and has basically had the same hostile policies despite switching between different parties. https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/53806-how-popular-is-... People wish that we would stop pandering to the US, at least to the level that we do.

Your government sucks for a lot of reasons, and being aligned with the US is the least of them. Many of your politicians were very vocal against Trump and wanted to campaign for his opposition. That interference is very unwelcome here. We don't give a flip what Europe thinks about our elected officials. We care what we think of them.

Re: FCC asks stations for "pro-America" programming, like daily Pledge of Allegiance

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took the comment as specifically referring to the fascist ideology being pushed by the current US administration.

There is no such ideology being pushed by the current administration. Both of you are wrong if you think that is happening.

bruh, we're literally in a thread about the FCC pressuring broadcasters to air nationalistic content.

Re: FCC asks stations for "pro-America" programming, like daily Pledge of Allegiance

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no such ideology being pushed by the current administration. Both of you are wrong if you think that is happening.

bruh, we're literally in a thread about the FCC pressuring broadcasters to air nationalistic content.

Nationalistic content is not fascist. They already air content of national interest such as election debates and presidential speeches.

Re: FCC asks stations for "pro-America" programming, like daily Pledge of Allegiance

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

bruh, we're literally in a thread about the FCC pressuring broadcasters to air nationalistic content.

Nationalistic content is not fascist. They already air content of national interest such as election debates and presidential speeches.

"Nationalistic" is not a synonym for "national interest". And the point was not just that its nationalistic content, but rather that broadcasters are being pressured to air it.
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