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FCC declines to punish Sinclair for its ‘must-run’ segments and scripts

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Re: FCC declines to punish Sinclair for its ‘must-run’ segments and scripts

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be very hard to view them as a monopoly in any case if you consider all the other media sources they compete with. I can’t think of the last time I saw broadcast local news.

Any justification for censoring Sinclair would apply 100 fold to Google or Facebook. Its just not constitutional to ban Sinclair for running pro GOP content.

Sinclair has a government-granted monopoly on the frequencies on which they broadcast. Google and Facebook offer service accessible over the (almost entirely) capacity-unconstrained Internet medium.

Re: FCC declines to punish Sinclair for its ‘must-run’ segments and scripts

#32
Torn here. On the one hand, I hate the "must run" items, yet on the other hand, I see this as being a slippery slope if they were to punish as that'd be dictating to a company what is allowed on their stations.

Having said that, two things:

1) I'm glad it was exposed and wish it were highlighted more than it was. This gives viewers the ability to discern how valuable they find the content to know that scripts were dictated to their newspeople.

2) I'm hoping, though doubtful, that this prevents Sinclair from buying up other small market stations as they've shown their hand as to what they'd do with a monopoly.

Re: FCC declines to punish Sinclair for its ‘must-run’ segments and scripts

#33
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be very hard to view them as a monopoly in any case if you consider all the other media sources they compete with. I can’t think of the last time I saw broadcast local news.

Just because you don't use something doesn't mean a lot of other people don't. TV is still the most popular medium for getting news. http://www.journalism.org/2016/07/07/pathways-to-news/

Absolutely it’s popular, especially with older people, but that doesn’t make it a monopoly.

I’m very hesitant to have the government interfering with media, even against right wing clowns like Sinclair.

Re: FCC declines to punish Sinclair for its ‘must-run’ segments and scripts

#34
post #28

Call me crazy but it's time for a legal definition of news (vs editorial) and then have that definition forced. If false advertising is a faux pas then news that's not attempting to be objective and forthright should be labeled. Most of the so called news / journalism isn't news / journalism any more than Aspartame is sugar. If you can't call Aspartame sugar then consuming content should be forced to be as transparen…

What is your proposed definition and how would you apply the test in practice?

"Must not intentionally report false information as truth."

Thus, lawsuites would be allowed if your org was found to be intentionally lying. But unless someone can prove you did it intentionally, they have no case.

Obviously you can lie all you want if you take the word "News" out of your name.

Re: FCC declines to punish Sinclair for its ‘must-run’ segments and scripts

#35
post #32

Torn here. On the one hand, I hate the "must run" items, yet on the other hand, I see this as being a slippery slope if they were to punish as that'd be dictating to a company what is allowed on their stations. Having said that, two things: 1) I'm glad it was exposed and wish it were highlighted more than it was. This gives viewers the ability to discern how valuable they find the content to know that scripts were di…

The problem here that I see is one of "false advertising" If you present yourself as "News", that has certain connotations. Publishing this forced run content without disclaiming that it is not independently sourced journalism IMO violates those connotations

Re: FCC declines to punish Sinclair for its ‘must-run’ segments and scripts

#36
post #32

Torn here. On the one hand, I hate the "must run" items, yet on the other hand, I see this as being a slippery slope if they were to punish as that'd be dictating to a company what is allowed on their stations. Having said that, two things: 1) I'm glad it was exposed and wish it were highlighted more than it was. This gives viewers the ability to discern how valuable they find the content to know that scripts were di…

I am opposed to punishing Sinclair. In my view it comes down to that we should discourage the creation of large companies in general. They just get too much power no matter what industry.

Re: FCC declines to punish Sinclair for its ‘must-run’ segments and scripts

#37
post #4

The FCC does have the authority to revoke licenses based on content, but it's rare for them to do so. However, this entire situation is ultimately a consequence of revoking the FCC fairness doctrine. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC_fairness_doctrine ) For example, a news station did have their license revoked by taking a strong stance against civil rights, and violated the fairness doctrine. ( https://en.wikipedi…

The fairness doctrine was hardly ever envoked. Attempting to apply it to a situation like this would not be constitutional. The fairness doctrine was found constitutional when it required a rebuttal to a direct personal attack during an era when there were only 3 stations. But this situation is different. It was never applied to a sitation where a network required "must run" content. At best, the fairness doctrine wo…

The fairness doctrine may not have been invoked or enforced, but stations still did things, to remain in compliance, that they stopped doing afterwards. In particular, right-wing talk radio exploded almost immediately after the repeal of the fairness doctrine.

Re: FCC declines to punish Sinclair for its ‘must-run’ segments and scripts

#38
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be blocked. Just last month for example the administration blocked Singapore-based Broadcom from a takeover bid of Qualcomm on national security grounds. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/12/technology/trump-broadcom... Not a fan of any of these folks, but if Trump is willing to do a USPS audit pony show just because he's in a kerfuffle with Amazon's WaPo, an international takeover of a large media conglomerat…

Amazon does not own WaPo. This distinction is important.

Of course not. The point is billionaires get into pissing contests by attacking whatever flank or asset is the easiest target.

Re: FCC declines to punish Sinclair for its ‘must-run’ segments and scripts

#39

Call me crazy but it's time for a legal definition of news (vs editorial) and then have that definition forced. If false advertising is a faux pas then news that's not attempting to be objective and forthright should be labeled. Most of the so called news / journalism isn't news / journalism any more than Aspartame is sugar. If you can't call Aspartame sugar then consuming content should be forced to be as transparen…

I don't think you're crazy; I just think there's an entire constitutional amendment in the way of what you're proposing, and it's one that I would prefer not to repeal or amend.

Re: FCC declines to punish Sinclair for its ‘must-run’ segments and scripts

#40

Call me crazy but it's time for a legal definition of news (vs editorial) and then have that definition forced. If false advertising is a faux pas then news that's not attempting to be objective and forthright should be labeled. Most of the so called news / journalism isn't news / journalism any more than Aspartame is sugar. If you can't call Aspartame sugar then consuming content should be forced to be as transparen…

I've thought about that idea as well, have some sort of official standard for something to be called news. Requirements about the separation between editorial and objective content, requirements for certain standards of fact checking and confirmation before reporting, etc. If you don't abide by those standards, you don't get official accreditation as a reliable news source. Give it some sort of official seal or recognition so consumers can see that this show or website is trustworthy. Maybe add some tax credits for these sources, or subsidies or grants to give them an additional edge over their competition. We already have the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, maybe we expand the grants made available and provide stricter requirements for eligibility.

All that said, I am ... hesitant about such a system. It would be immensely controversial, and puts a lot more power in the hands of government over the news content Americans watch every day. The only way to assuage my concerns about that is to make the base standards a pretty lower bar, just things about confirming stories and requiring the submission of corrections and redactions when needed. And add in something to protect journalists, so that the government can't revoke a new source's accreditation because they leaked CIA documents about torture or something else embarrassing to the government. Maybe model it more like university accreditation, where accreditation of news sources involves the input from NGOs and regional government entities.

There's also some question about how helpful it would really be: I imagine the people who watch Info Wars aren't going to stop because it doesn't have the government seal of approval. I think you'd need to give a lot in subsidies or benefits to accredited news sources to give them an edge.

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