Disturbing New Survey Results - Dallas-Mavs.com Forums

Arne · 08-15-2008, 06:50 AM

Quote:

Disturbing New Survey Results

August 14th, 2008 by Matt Hawes

According to the results of a Rasmussen survey released today, 47% of our fellow countrymen (47%!) “believe the government should require all radio and television stations to offer equal amounts of conservative and liberal political commentary….” This is up from the 41% results of July 2007.

Further, 31% favor requiring internet sites to also balance their commentary. (Imagine having to sift through a series of blog posts on campaignforliberty.com arguing strongly in favor of world intervention and the Federal Reserve system.) The good news is that this is down from 34% in the July survey referenced earlier.

Think about this for a second. Nearly half of the Americans surveyed believe that government should be mandating the content of commentary on their news outlets. The so-called “Fairness Doctrine,” which espouses the belief that news outlets should be forced to present both (liberal and conservative) perspectives of an issue, is usually supported by those on the left, but I can imagine some conservatives supporting the question posed by the phone survey because of what is seen as left-wing media bias.

But let’s step back for a second. Shouldn’t news be objective? Yes, the presentation of the news of the day should be objective. However, there’s a big difference between news and commentary, and there’s a major difference between outlets presenting balanced programming, and outlets being forced by the government to present balanced programming. News outlets should be free to offer whatever commentary they wish, and I should be free to decide whether or not to give them my support. (The question of the news itself being objective should be a matter of principle, not force.) By the way, the “Fairness Doctrine” has been tried before, and was done away with during the Reagan administration.

Let’s face it. The FCC would be empowered like never before to control even more of what you’re allowed to see and hear, and the idea of constitutional limitations would be slid further into the shredder. Besides being an attack on free speech, the “Fairness Doctrine” is an all-out assault on what remains of the free market. If I don’t like what I’m seeing or hearing on tv (an ever-increasing sentiment these days), I have the right to turn to something I approve of and give that program higher ratings. The same concept can be applied to what I read. (Just ask newspaper owners about what the internet has done to their business.)

And why just conservative and liberal viewpoints? In the interest of “Fairness,” shouldn’t all viewpoints be allowed to compete in the arena? (Can you see what a mess this would turn into?)

Dr. Paul has co-sponsored HR 2905, a bill from Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana to prevent the enforcement of a “Fairness Doctrine,” and I urge you to contact your representatives and tell them to co-sponsor this bill if they have not already done so. (You can find a list of co-sponsors here.) You can also urge your representative to sign the discharge petition, which would pull the bill out of committee and bring it to the House floor for a vote. The petition only needs sixteen more signatures. (Discharge petitions require 218 signatures - a majority of the 435 House members.)

Spread the word on HR 2905 and the discharge petition, and let’s keep this threat to the free market out of our Republic.

Link: http://www.campaignforliberty.com

Flacolaco · 08-15-2008, 09:07 AM

Well there's something that Señor Paul and I can agree on.

In fact, why doesn't the government just go ahead and make sure that Dude and Janett start the same number of threads so that we can be fair about that too.

Maybe someone from the FCC could walk around behind me and make sure my output is fair and unbiased too...

Where's the line? What's the difference?

Give me a break. Even you crazy cooks around here can't possibly support this one.

DirkFTW · 08-15-2008, 09:59 AM

All I know is that I can't stand the major news outlets anymore. Would it be too much to ask for all the commentary to be left out? I didn't turn on the news to listen to ___'s opinions. I turned it on to see what is going on the world. Or at least I used to.

jefelump · 08-15-2008, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DirkFTW

All I know is that I can't stand the major news outlets anymore. Would it be too much to ask for all the commentary to be left out? I didn't turn on the news to listen to ___'s opinions. I turned it on to see what is going on the world. Or at least I used to.

Quote from the CBS TV show "The Unit"

Quote:

There's no Truth in the News, and no News in the Truth

That just about sums up the major News outlets' reporting.

DirkFTW · 08-15-2008, 01:55 PM

^Looks like the Enquirer beat them to their desired niche market... AND out-scooped them on the Edwards story.

alexamenos · 08-15-2008, 02:14 PM

Quote:

There's no Truth in the News, and no News in the Truth

That's actually a line regarding the former Soviet Union's two primary news outlets, "Pravda" (Russian for "Truth") and "Isvestia" (Russian for "News"). Hence, there's no pravda in Isvestia, and no isvestia in Pravda.

Underdog · 08-15-2008, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flacolaco

Well there's something that Señor Paul and I can agree on.

In fact, why doesn't the government just go ahead and make sure that Dude and Janett start the same number of threads so that we can be fair about that too.

Maybe someone from the FCC could walk around behind me and make sure my output is fair and unbiased too...

Where's the line? What's the difference?

Give me a break. Even you crazy cooks around here can't possibly support this one.

I'd like to cosign on this brief rant...

wmbwinn · 08-15-2008, 10:56 PM

I smell another Supreme Court decision defending the freedom of speech. Maybe the current Supreme Court could hit another home run for freedom of Speech like they did for gun rights...

It is not as if many liberals are listening to Rush Limbaugh...

And, conservatives don't read Pelosi's web page....

Both pander to their supporting base for various reasons. If you want balanced news, then go get it. It is out there.

This is true in the greater world also. You can use the internet to read the news in Palestine and Israel on the same day concerning the same story.

You can read the Russian papers and the American papers on the same day regarding the Georgia invasion.

You can read and learn exactly as much as you want to. And, you can gorge in your own side of the discussion and ignore the other side or you can learn about two sides of every issue using the internet news sources.

Naturally, stick to decent news sources...

dude1394 · 08-15-2008, 11:21 PM

Need a poll on this one. Maybe I can figure out how to do one.

Rhylan · 08-17-2008, 10:29 PM

Unfortunately, American society has a developed a fairness fetish. That 41%, 47%, whatever it is at any given time, is just a bunch of people who are thinking about fairness in terms of whether or not their 5 year old gets to play x minutes a game in soccer.. and their pea sized brains can't think about it any other way.