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View Full Version : Groups Want FCC to Police Hate Speech on Talk-Radio, Cable News, Maybe the Internet


INRM
2nd June 2010, 01:28 PM
Groups Want FCC to Police Hate Speech on Talk Radio, Cable News Networks

URL: http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/100833-groups-want-fcc-to-police-hate-speech

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is being urged to monitor "hate speech" on talk radio and cable broadcast networks.

A coalition of more than 30 organizations argue in a letter to the FCC that the Internet has made it harder for the public to separate the facts from bigotry masquerading as news.

The groups also charge that syndicated radio and cable television programs "masquerading as news" use hate as a profit model.

"As traditional media have become less diverse and less competitive, they have also grown less responsible and less responsive to the communities that they are supposed to serve," the organizations wrote to the FCC. "In this same atmosphere hate speech thrives, as hate has developed as a profit-model for syndicated radio and cable television program masquerading as 'news.'"

The organizations, which include Free Press, the Center for Media Justice, the Benton Foundation and Media Alliance, also argue that the anonymity of the Web gives ammunition to those that would spread hate.


What's your opinions?

I personally think this isn't really about hate speech, but about silencing people on TV, Radio, and possibly even the Internet, who talk about things the government doesn't like.


INRM

Architect
2nd June 2010, 01:31 PM
Why is this in the Non-US section?

KoihimeNakamura
2nd June 2010, 01:37 PM
Paranoia? Not sure..

dudalb
2nd June 2010, 02:29 PM
As much as I despise Rush, Beck and the rest, I despise the idea of trying to limit freedom of speech even more.
Although the makers of this idiot proposol come from the left end of the spectrum, just as many idiot proposols impacting freedom of speech come from the right, as the thread about the proposol to licence Journalists in Michigan shows.

hgc
2nd June 2010, 07:39 PM
As a lefty type person myself, it turns my stomach to see these people attempt to impinge on our freedom of expression.

I agree that our public discourse is awfully broken and doing us great damage, due to the failure of the media, but it's not just Fox News and talk radio that's the problem. For crying out loud, the friggin' New York Times let Judith Miller use their front page to blunder and bluff us into the $trillion (so far) war in Iraq.

Beerina
3rd June 2010, 05:59 AM
As much as I despise Rush, Beck and the rest, I despise the idea of trying to limit freedom of speech even more.
Although the makers of this idiot proposol come from the left end of the spectrum, just as many idiot proposols impacting freedom of speech come from the right, as the thread about the proposol to licence Journalists in Michigan shows.

Authorizing government the power to outlaw speech that outrages people hasn't...worked out so well historically.

KingMerv00
3rd June 2010, 07:30 AM
Doesn't frighten me. Crazy groups want crazy things and they always will. I don't see this as any different than the KKK demanding resegregation; it is all bluster.

INRM
3rd June 2010, 11:22 AM
Architect,

Uh, this should probably be under US Politics...

Architect
3rd June 2010, 12:55 PM
uh-huh