Thinking about 911
It’s truely frightening that in an election year, 911 and partisan politics are so closely intertwined. It’s even more so as we understand how this all has come about.
Historically the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of course used the Fairness Doctrine and two corollary rules, the personal attack rule and the political editorial rule to “manage” political commentary over radio and television. The FCC is directed by five Commissioners appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate for five-year terms, except when filling an unexpired term. The President designates one of the Commissioners to serve as Chairman. Only three Commissioners may be members of the same political party. None of them can have a financial interest in any Commission-related business.
So low and behold, under Republican leadership, in 1987 the Fairness Doctrine was repealed. Then again during Reagan’s presidency in 2000, regulations against monopolies were relaxed to the point of being nonexistant and the personal attack and political editorial rules were a appealed. So now we have unregulated partisan control of television, radio, cable networks, etc. and this year the Rebublicans are going after the Internet by oposition of Net Neutrality legislation.
One should wonder how Ed Case would vote on such an issue? One could argue that his hidden agenda for obtaining public office is to influence the outcome of all these issues.
For now, the Internet belongs to all of us equally. Imagine a world where it does not. Unfortunately, Net Neutrality is an very difficult concept to understand. We all need to work hard to learn about it and in turn teach others how it can work for the average citizen.
So while it’s still free … I’ll provide one more link, this time on what Keith Olbermann has to say about 911… He speaks to me, I hope you all agree.
Steven
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A good source for understanding our current rights concerning political commentary on the Internet can be found here. http://www.netdemocracyguide.org/
Comment by Steven Sellner — September 13, 2006 @ 8:44 am
regarding net neutrality….
this is an issue (as a computer geek myself) that i think is exceedingly important. i tend to be generally distrustful of capitalist principles, however, net neutrality is, in the simplest terms a free market guarantee on the internet. it gives businesses big and small a level playing field. the best site, best product wins.
as far as i’m concerned, the internet is the last (seemingly) bastion of free flowing information in the world. and now there are those in congress who would undo this. i can’t find words strong enough to describe how i feel about those people, only to say that they are SELL OUTS!!!
by the way, i asked about senator akaka’s position regarding net neutrality. he is in favor of it and would vote to protect it. yea akaka!!
Comment by frosty — September 13, 2006 @ 8:53 am