August 5, 2007
Free Speech: Sponsored or Regulated?Posted by Bryan
Rupert Murdoch, head of all things Fox (and a jillion other things) has successfully advanced his plans to buy Dow Jones, which is the publisher of The Wall Street Journal.
I'm not an anti-Fox News person, although I confess to watching very little television news any more of any stripe. Most of my news gathering is online and one of those many sources continues to be Fox News.
However, I'm not cracked about the problem of corporate control of the news, especially in its mitigating entanglements with entertainment and sports (notice how many news segments are glorified commercials).
You know what I'm even less cracked, about?
A government-controlled media, which some who are aspiring toward leadership seem to be indicating is the preferable alternative to the current situation.
The ugly step-sister to this already unpleasant situation is the paper tiger that may or may not be the (possible but not plausible) revival of The Fairness Doctrine, which requires the equal-time consideration of every air-broadcast political thought. In theory, this means that every time Ann Coulter gets her face on TV and says, "Liberals are stupid," Ann Edwards gets to come on afterward and say, "Nuh uh, conservatives are mean (and by implication, stupid)."
Again, while I would prefer that Ann Coulter learned to be nice (or at least nicer - because I think she's probably smart enough to still win her points without resorting to the ugliness), I prefer even more that the free market dictate whose voices are heard. I begin to feel like the government undersells our intellect when they tell us we *have* to listen to the full argument of the both sides, as though we're either too simple-minded to or just too naive and need an Al Gore Powerpoint presentation to give us clarity. The reality is, folks on both sides generally know where they stand on most issues, and those who don't will do the work to find out the "other side" of an issue that challenges them to pick a side.
August 5, 2007 5:24 AM | TrackBack