Dear Conservative,
Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are two of the hallmarks of our constitutional republic. The first amendment protects individuals, reporters, and press agencies from government intrusion or bullying, and no government entity can ever introduce a law or regulation that violates this right.
According to Reporters Without Borders, however, the United States is ranked just 46th in the world regarding press freedom. Since 2012, the U.S. has dropped 12 spots on the Press Freedom rankings, and there is no doubt that the Obama administration’s policies are to blame. To put it in perspective, the United States’ press freedom ranking is worse than Ghana and Namibia, and only one spot above Haiti. That’s right: the country that gave the world the first amendment and the very principle of press freedom is now ranked just above Haiti. Pundits have been scrambling to identify what caused such a dramatic drop in the rankings. Well, here’s one reason why.
Ajit Pai, a commissioner in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has issued a warning that the Obama administration has instructed the agency to dispatch researchers to monitor how the media’s newsrooms choose their stories. Under the guise of a media study, FCC monitors will investigate how news stations choose which breaking news to cover, which is information the Obama administration desperately needs to get ahead of scandals before they break.
This isn’t an exaggeration. The Obama administration plans to put a Federal monitor in every major press newsroom in order to monitor whether news agencies are covering the country’s “critical information needs.” In other words, the administration wants to get ahead of damaging news stories and deliberately plant stories that help the President. Instead of using the FBI to tap journalists’ phones, Obama is just going to use the FCC as his personal news police.
There are a number of lines that the Federal Government absolutely CANNOT cross, and putting spies in American newsroom is one of them. The only “critical information” that the American people need is evidence of Barack Obama’s crimes!
By law, the FCC must have commissioners from both political parties. This is to ensure that the agency can’t be used as a weapon by the party in power. One Republican commissioner has blown the whistle on what very well may be one of Obama’s worst and most abusive policies!
The Obama administration wants to place monitors and investigators in television, radio, and newspaper newsrooms in order to figure out the “critical information needs” of the community. First of all, the FCC does not even have the authority to regulate newspapers or cable news… It simply doesn’t. Secondly, even where the FCC does have regulatory power, no government actor can EVER monitor news rooms in order to influence the editorial process. That is so clearly unconstitutional that it shouldn’t even be up for debate!
The media is supposed to be the fourth branch of government. The founders designed our system so that the press would be a failsafe to ensure that even the most tyrannical governments would be held accountable in the court of public opinion. Since the government cannot constitutionally dictate what the media is allowed to publish, the free press allows the truth to always be available to the American people.
Now, the Obama administration is sending the FCC in to monitor what stories they cover, how they do their research, and to analyze whether bias is present. The FCC has absolutely no right to monitor how and why news stations cover the stories they do.
One might expect to see such a regulatory program a third world or dictatorial regime. However, Obama’s attempt to monitor the free press is so un-American and unconstitutional that it is sickening!
It isn’t hard to see how these FCC monitors will ultimately be able to influence what stories newsrooms can cover. Without an FCC license, broadcast stations would be out of business. So, while this program is technically “voluntary” (Democrats say the same about taxes), the FCC possesses the power to make life incredibly difficult for news agencies that don’t open their doors to Federal monitors. Newspapers, cable news, and news websites like Conservative-Daily.com, however, are not subject to FCC regulations, so that agency will have its hands tied when trying to punish the press. But, that is what Obama’s IRS is for, right? Bullying the opposition into obedience…
The only reason that Obama or one of his administration thugs should be the focus of a newsroom is if they are being put on trial for their crimes!
Placing FCC monitors in newsrooms to evaluate editorial decision making is so Orwellian that it is completely incompatible with our constitution republic. There are even commissioners within the FCC who are blowing the whistle, trying desperately to call attention to this tyrannical and abusive Obama administration program. Yet, the administration and the FCC push forward, daring Congress and the American people to stop them!
This abusive FCC program is one of the reasons that the U.S. slipped 12 spots in the worldwide Press Freedom rankings. It is impossible for a free press to survive when a Presidential administration plants bugs into journalists’ phones, threatens whistleblowers with criminal charges, and invades newsrooms with government monitors!
This is the kind of government bullying you would have seen behind the iron curtain…
The Constitution is supposed restrict how the government treats the citizenry, not the other way around. With this breaking news, there is now evidence that the Obama administration has directly violated every single amendment in the Bill of Rights.
Only Congress can stop Obama from using the FCC to bully the free press into obeying the administration!
We must stand up on behalf of the Constitution and make sure that Obama’s thought police cannot infiltrate free press news rooms to influence what information the citizenry has access to!
Sincerely,
Joe Otto
Conservative Daily
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