I appeared on Mike Pintek’s show on America’s first radio station, KDKA in Pittsburgh, the other night talking about speech regulations the FCC has proposed for radio and television. These regulations would erase more than twenty years of speech governed by the free marketplace rather than by government edict. It’s a sad story when we are talking about regulating speech in America. But, we are in 2009.
Shortly after the KDKA appearance one liberal blogger wrote the following:
Heard Jennings last night on Pittsburgh RW [right-wing] KDKA for a few minutes last night before I had to turn him off cause my blood pressure was probably rising. What a bunch of BS. He was claiming there are going to be regional boards that radio execs will have to report to on their content. Also that it may not be a Fairness Doctrine but another stealth measure like I mentioned with the regional boards.
So, reporting to regional boards is BS? Here are the facts. The FCC has such a requirement teed up and ready to roll out.
On January 24, 2008, the FCC filed a “Report on Broadcast Localism And Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.” In that 98 page report, there are EIGHT references requiring radio stations to set up “community advisory boards” to advise on station programming. The Vice President of the San Antonio branch of the NAACP, Joe Linson, said such boards would “allow individuals from all sectors of the community to provide input and to help shape the message for their areas,” in a statement before the FCC. The FCC concurs with this and similar statements:
We tentatively conclude that each licensee [station] should convene a permanent advisory board made up of officials and other leaders from the service area of its broadcast station.” The FCC brief also states, “How should members of the advisory boards be selected or elected? How can the advisory boards be composed so as to ensure that all segments of the community, including minority or underserved members of the community, would also have an opportunity to voice their concerns about local issues facing the area? How frequently should licensess be required to meet with these advisory boards?
The FCC also wants to involve these groups in the license renewal process for radio stations. Let’s interpret.
The left sees these boards serving their purpose of muzzling conservative speech and thought in America by forcing stations to broadcast more diverse programming to their liking. They feel conservative talk is too powerful. Conservatives feel talk radio is the only balance to all other media and the only opposition to the Obama administration. In a direct reference to conservative talk radio, the FCC report states:
While the Commission has observed that each broadcast station is not necessarily required to provide service to all such groups, it has nonetheless recognized the concerns of some that programming – particularly network programming – often is not sufficiently culturally diverse.
In other words, “Hush Rush.”
In the world of broadcasting, we are judged by ratings. We have the ultimate advisory board – our listeners who vote by rating us. They vote with their ears everyday. If they don’t like what they hear, they don’t listen and when that happens, radio changes in response. The American public is the only advisory board needed in a free society, but we seem to be moving quickly toward micro-managing free speech.
Today, many radio stations seek advice from community leaders on a voluntary basis. The government wants to mandate this process. Big brother once again. The Obama administration and numerous Democrats want to “redistribute speech” in America. What’s free about that? It’s only free if they agree with you and they don’t agree with conservative talk in America. They know that by snuffing out the voice from the right, they will destroy conservative values in America. The framers of the First Amendment would not recognize what they helped create. As we began, its a sad day in American when we hear talk of regulating speech. That is BS!
Brian Jennings is author of Censorship:The Threat to Silence Talk Radio – out May 5th from Simon & Schuster.
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