Posted on 06/04/2010 7:19:57 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
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.
"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.com.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
This segment of the news is brought to you by Big Brother.
Smacks of? Wrong. This is fundamentally and exclusively about government control of the press. Period.
It’s hard to understand the FTC being involved in this at all.
But most troubling (and I didn’t see it listed here) is the “hot story” proposal. It would allow the first source to break a story a monopoly on that story for a certain length of time.
This means that if the administration wanted to control a bad story, they could simply leak it to a complicit agency and no one else could even report on that story.
Talk about a sly way to get total control!
The Fourth Estate IS THE GOVERNMENT...................
Bookmark
The next draft will call for a Ministry of Truth to administer the program.
Hey, FTC! JUST WHAT PART OF “CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW...” DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?.....................
Pisser in all this is that the media will go along willingly. Where is the media types howling about the 1st ammendment? They are being led to the wood chipper while singing praises about the guy who is leading them.
The gall of these politicians knows no bounds. I wonder if the early 1900’s horse and buggy lobby...or typewriter manufacturers...or oil lamp makers...had this kind of pull.
The dinosaur media is dying for a number of reasons. First and foremost is that the news they print is old by the time we see it due to the internet. Second is that most of them are so slanted that no one wants to read what they have to say anyway!
Capitalism requires that weaker companies die. Let them go.
“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.”
News flash: We already have a dizzying web of conflicting interests and independent journalism has already been eradicated.
Brilliant!!!
Guess the next "takeover" will be of the buggy industry!
Seems to me that the press has been reinventing itself quite well in the last 20 years or so. (Internet, Talk Radio, etc).
The problem is that the elites don’t like the direction it has been “reinventing” and want to find a way to reverse this trend.
Most people don’t care about news. Most of those who do care want accurate news, not propaganda.
“Hey, FTC! JUST WHAT PART OF “CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW...” DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?.....................”
They don’t understand any of it. All our federal bureaucracies have spent decades hiring far left, anti business, big government libs. This can’t be fixed. We must disband and replace nearly all of these agencies. Newt Gingrich is the only one that has had the guts to say this. I’ve heard him state there is no way to reform these government agencies. We must get rid of them to get rid of the libs that run them and literally occupy somewhere in the 90% range of all these government jobs.
And people wonder why the country keeps going left.
A ship whose rudder steers only to the left or right will go in circles...................
Thugs, spies and infiltrators to make sure the "truth" is what they say it is...............
it is a form of suicide. a bit slower than usual methods of suicide but still lethal.
God help us in our day,cast out the enemies of America, turn our nation back to You in truth, in Jesus name amen.
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