Over thirty organizations want the Federal Communications Commission to open up a probe on “hate speech” and “misinformation” in media. “Hate has developed as a profit-model for syndicated radio and cable television programs masquerading as ‘news’,” they wrote to the FCC earlier this month.
[…]
The groups who want this new proceeding include Free Press, the Media Access Project, Common Cause, the Prometheus Radio Project, and the League of United Latin American Citizens. Their statement, filed in the Commission’s Future of Media proceeding, comes in support of a petition to the agency submitted over a year ago by the National Hispanic Media Coalition.
“Hate speech against vulnerable groups is pervasive in our media—it is not limited to a few isolated instances or any one media platform,” NHMC warned the FCC in 2009. “Indeed, many large mainstream media corporations regularly air hate speech, and it is prolific on the Internet. Hate speech takes various forms, from words advocating violence to those creating a climate of hate towards vulnerable groups. Cumulatively, hate speech creates an environment of hate and prejudice that legitimizes violence against its targets.”
[…]
In addition, the groups wants the FCC to examine “the prevalence of misinformation” in the media, since misinformation “creates a climate of prejudice.”
The words ‘henhouse’ and ‘fox’ spring to mind.
I guess “freedom of speech” is meaningless to them.
All of these people, I presume, are against the use of terms like “illegal alien” preferring terms such as “undocumented entitlement beneficiary.”
I dislike hate speech (I even hate the damned PC term) but it IS speech and does no direct harm. If someone inciting to riot or to injure some person or group, there are already laws that cover.
Once you start telling people what they can and cannot say, the slippery slope gets oiled.
It is simply racism and bigotry and, as Rand Paul revealed recently, it all boils down to selfishness. If any of the repugs were honest, they’d own up to this. Then we could begin an honest discussion. It is greed baby, greed!
NO takers? I didn’t think so.
If you can’t beat ’em, regulate ’em.
Love it or hate it, it’s still free speech. If you don’t like what they have to say, then raise intelligent and influential counterpoints to diminish their arguments.
Otherwise, just STFU.
Mr. Ed, you sound like your relative – the previous Mr. Ed, both talking horses, except he was more insightful.
Well I for one am sick and damn tired of all these damn REPUGs saying “hate speech is free speech” while calling sexy love speech “obscene”.
Lets call a double standard a double standard.
Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck can spew all the hate talk they want, but lets rate it R or NC-17 like it should be rated and have it play only when impressionable children can’t hear it.
Criminalising subjective opinion is open to misinterpretation and political abuse. What the FCC needs to do is to decriminalize duelling, and auction the TV rights to the highest bidding network.
Bring on the brown shirts.
Oh, cripes, here we go again…
And worse, we have clowns like ArianeB and Ed mouthing off about “Repugs” blah blah blah…
Let’s look at the quote again, and use our brains for a moment.
“Hate speech takes various forms, from words advocating violence to those creating a climate of hate towards vulnerable groups.”
Tell you what, let’s start by throwing everyone in jail for a year who referred to a Tea-party Activist as a “Teabagger.”
#6 – I’m with you there ArianeB. I’ll bet the Tv rating system doesn’t apply to anything the FoxNews channel produces. I keep replaying that “Glenn Beck has Nazi Tourettes” segment that Lewis Black did on the Daily Show. Just to ensure myself that there are thinking minds who realize how mentally disturbed these so-called “media icons of conservatism”, really are.
But I’m not sure the Motion Picture rating system will suffice, or even be allowed. And the Tv rating code only warns of indecent content. Whatever that means. Nothing about stupidity, political bias, and outright deceit. And isn’t it ironic that those who usually decry “freedom of speech”, have the most monetary means to produce their lies for public consumption?
This article merely mentions “monitoring” hate speech and misinformation. Kind of like how some consumer research monitors the safety and quality of consumer products. Unless this monitoring results in some kind of regular media grading report. It will be pretty useless. And where would this report be exposed, Tv? I’m certain that this form of “free speech” would be suppressed, by the very media monopolies, that profit by their misinformation. So it would be reduced to a few websites and maybe some newsletter. But any report on hate speech and misinformation, will very likely be labeled as hate speech and misinformation, itself. On the major media channels. If Rupert Murdock allows any mention of it at all.
Glenn Beck will probably claim the Nazis are behind it all.
The truth hurts, I guess. Wonder how long before Obama establishes the Ministry of Truth and the Nightwatch.
It just galls these people that they can control every kind of media except talk radio. Hilarious.
cAN WE ADD, cable/sat/radio/newspaper??
FOX and henhouse??
NO its the TOWER of babel..Who wants to sort threw this mess?
Another attack on one of our treasured freedoms. The names of all those organizations sound real nice, almost as if they were invented just with such a strategem in mind. It’s not enough to just flood the big blogs (luckily, DU isn’t one of those!) with professional posters to defend the party line, now this. It’s really starting to piss me off!
“And worse, we have clowns like ArianeB and Ed mouthing off about “Repugs” blah blah blah…”
When they get real foamy they trot out cliches like “neocon.”
If we actually had news outlets that reported the news in an unbiased way allot of this would go away.
The fact that what people think is news reporting is nothing more than talking heads pushing what ever view they have while twisting the facts to fit their view (or just making shit up) is causing the problems. It is getting to the point where most of these shows should run the follow disclaimer throughout the whole show:
“Nothing being said on this show is factual we make it up to provide you with entertainment and to support our views.”
While they are at it they can repeal the rest of the Bill of Rights. All those pesky rights are inconvenient for those that govern. SHUT UP SLAVE.
It’s always amazing how quickly the label “hater” is applied to “anyone who disagrees with us”.
What do all of those complaining organizations have in common? 100% testicle-free members. I have yet to have an illegal Mexican invader-alien walk up to me and say, “I will steal your welfare, occupy your land, demean your culture, language and laws, and put my genitalia into your white women without permission. What do you think of that Mr. American?”
Cowards all!
Agree that banning on-line hate speech and misinformation sites is a double edged sword.
On the one hand it shuts down religious on-line sites from stirring the “unhinged” conservative sheeple.
On the other hand, it provides a powerful means to tell the truth and bring fresh ideas forward.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
So tell me again: how are they going to prohibit certain speech? The Obama administration is using the Constitution as toilet paper.
#21 cursor_
Excellent rant dude… Power to the people!
.before it’s too late.
I hate the FCC. And their murderous ways.
Oh, like the FCC is gonna regulate anything.*
*unless you flash some boob
You can’t do matey.
Every politician would be out of work because they would have nothing to talk about. ALL, and I do mean ALL politics is about misinformation, of ‘re-constructing’ what your political opponents have written, or said in order to make out to others that they are wrong, that their position is untenable, is not in the public interest or has offended some several hundred-year-old untouchable statement or document.
If you think I’m talking here about the Constitution, the Holy Koran or the Bible, then you’ve got the point.
All three are, of course, political, big on promises that someone else will keep – or so they claim! Evidence for promise kept seems to me to be a bit thin on the ground
Nowadays, I can get in trouble at work for saying something “offensive”. There is no clear definition of what is “offensive”. For instance, I “offended” a female reporter for saying a Chinese driver was driving as if the world was fucking centered around her. Which she was. Ooooooh. Big problem there..
Naturally, leftist liberal bullshit is clearly offensive to ME, and when I have to put up with endless blathering about how wrong it is for Arizona, for example, to enforce the law, I am deeply offended. Liberals only know how to apply their “justice” in a manner agreeable to their own platform. Hence, leftists preach diversity, preach inclusion, but absolutely refuse to allow any dissention.
Jeeze. These people sound just like all those Pakastini nutters who are demanding an international law of the death penalty for anyone who draws muhammand.
#29
Where was this great state of Arizona when the government was tapping phones without warrant?
Where were they when the government had systems at Verizon to watch all the emails?
Where were they when the government ramrodded Patriot Act I & II?
Where were they when the same immigration enforcement was in place during Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush Jr.?
Why did they let government do what they did before and never ONCE wrote any law that took over control from the federal level to the state level?
BUT in 1987 when Dr Martin Luther King Jr Day was being created to honour him and give Americans a day off this happened in AZ:
Sen. John McCain (Republican of Arizona) voted against the creation of the holiday to honor King, and later defended Arizona Republican Governor Evan Mecham’s rescission of the state holiday in honor of King created by his Democratic predecessor. After his opposition grew increasingly untenable, McCain reversed his position, and encouraged his home state of Arizona to recognize the holiday despite opposition from Mecham.
Now tell me how incredibly bigoted can people be that they will NOT take a PAID holiday off for a black man?
I would take a paid holiday off for Soupy Sales if given it. I don’t care WHO the man or woman is or the amount of melanin they have in their skin. He helped lead an end to the horribly wrong segregation in the US and was murdered for his work. THAT alone is worthy of some recognition.
AZ has issues. And I think it is the same issues that many Tea Party people have. The Euro-Descent caucasians are seeing their numbers dwindle and their power fading as they see hispanics, asians & africans coming in.
It is FEAR. And fear leads to anger, because people get angry that they have to be afraid. Anger leads to hate and hate leads to malice.
Isolationism is always due to fear.
Fear of change.
Fear of the unknown.
Fear of disappointment.
Fear of compromise.
Fear causes men to hate their fellow man. What they don’t seem to realise is two things:
Hispanics are descended from Europeans as well.
Hispanics make up the population of most nations south of their border all the way to Antarctica.
Get over it. Accept it. THEY are the dominate group in the Western Hemisphere.
They can’t hold back the tide.
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#31 “Now tell me how incredibly bigoted can people be that they will NOT take a PAID holiday off for a black man?”
To be fair MLK did not do as much for the world as George Washington Carver. Carver is one of my heroes. From time to time I visit a statue of him.
“The Euro-Descent caucasians are seeing their numbers dwindle and their power fading as they see hispanics, asians & africans coming in.”
Really? Seems like the power of the rich Caucasians increases with a flow of wage slaves coming in. How does this help Hispanics to be taken advantage of. You don’t care about the Hispanics; you just want to make sure your produce comes in good and cheap.
Or maybe what Hispanics need is a man like Carver to make a way for produce to be harvested more cheaply so the workers can be paid a fair wage.
#3 By any reasonable yard stick you just engaged in hate speech. The fact that you are to bigoted to even recognize the fact is your problem but I’m pretty sure that your definition of hate speech is anyone who disagrees with me is engaging in hate speech and anything I might say is fine.
The problem that even a narrow minded bigot should recognize is the party in power gets to define hate speech and that usually means anyone that disagrees with them goes to jail.
Unless you are planning on the Dems staying in power by use of guns I suggest you rethink your position.