I recently posted an article on mental illness, and the bottom of the article made reference to crimes committed by those with mental illness.
More important is the current discussion over the 1st Amendment and whether there are any restrictions on it, as well as what those restrictions might be. Also, whether the government does – or should – have controls over free speech in any environment, including any over-the-air (OTA) broadcast media.
Currently, the FCC does have some behavioral rules for OTA speech (which includes videos and pictures). Those rules go back decades. They were originally meant to prevent offending groups of individuals, to protect children from profanity and obscenity, and to provide political candidates “equal time” on the air.
Although the equal time rule dates back to 1927, its use has fallen out of favor. Another rule, the “fairness doctrine,” which required broadcasters to provide “balance”, has been abandoned. This is a primary reason that late-night “entertainment” shows do not have to have equal representation on the air, and why those shows can freely lean in one direction without any need for “balance”.
FCC rules require that news shows generally provide truth. They cannot knowingly present lies or distort the truth on major issues, or they run the risk of having their license “to broadcast in the public interest” suspended. Unfortunately, the enforcement of this rule is difficult: is “deliberate omission” a lie, or, if the rest of the story is true, then is the broadcast “truth”?
Herein lies the problem: in its drive to establish itself as the sole arbiters of “truth” in American society, the major broadcast networks have presented only one half of the story —the half that supports their friends in government and other media. They have argued that “omission” is not a “lie” and hence have avoided any kind of balance. They do not need to be fair. So they aren’t.
I find the FCC’s “we can do this the easy way or the hard way” statement to NBC very troubling. Without providing context – that the late-night show in question was entertainment and not news – it overstepped its authority when threatening a license suspension. By showing his bias, Brendan Carr should recuse himself from any further FCC enforcement actions or should step down.
On the other hand, it’s time for the FCC to redefine “truth” in OTA news reports to require that both sides of a story must be reported. It needs to define “omission of facts” as lies and tell OTA news broadcasters that they will be sanctioned if they continue telling “half-truths”. To continue in that mode is to violate “public interest” rules for news programs, and to risk license suspension.
The truth, the whole truth, and nothing by the truth. If it’s good enough for a courtroom, it’s good enough for a network news broadcast which, interestingly enough, can – and does – find itself in court when violating the truth.
But it isn’t just the news that’s being affected by lies in the media. It’s all of society.
We’ve spent the past 50 years listening to news broadcasts meant to split the nation down the middle. Those incomplete and tainted broadcast news reports have turned criminals into heroes, have turned disagreements into racial incidents, and have misled far too many people into hating their fellow Americans. They blame one side while waiting for the other side to react with violence. And then, when the violence occurs, they profit off the coverage. The result is “mostly peaceful” riots… while the broadcast networks sell advertising minutes and their show hosts continue to “poke the bear”.
The result? Others have been saying it for a while, and I agree: we’re approaching an inflection point in American society. The question is whether America is will soon become a bifurcated society or whether we’re already there.
It’s no longer about racism or class. Or even whether you have a job with a weekly paycheck or are rich beyond your wildest dreams. It’s whether we use the Constitution as a basis for law and order and public sector behavior, or whether we abandon Constitutional protections in favor of an all-encompassing umbrella government that makes decisions for every person in American society.
In short, whether we have individual freedom or the imposition of socialist and communist controls.
I do not believe that this country will be the same in 2030 as it is today. If you look around, you can see the opposing sides forming and preparing for the next phase of American society… and for some kind of conflict. I don’t know what form that conflict will take.
America has now seen control of this country when led by the Left – the Biden administration – and the Right – the previous and current Trump administrations.
America now sees what happens when the Left doesn’t get what it wants: riots and destruction. There is no similar tantrum from the Right – yet.
The fat lady is getting ready to sing. The real question is: what will be the lyrics of the song?
