Mediaboss Marketing

The most unregulated industry in the United States? The media, particularly the print media.

Some credit the 1st Amendment for this freedom of speech observance. Dont be fooled.

The media is largely unregulated because government cant stand the heat when it attempts to do so. Remember the Fairness Doctrine? It was supposed to guarantee equal time to both conservatives and liberals, aka Republicans and Democrats. It was a policy of the United States Federal Communications Commission, introduced in 1949, that required the holders of broadcast licenses to both present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was, in the commission's view, honest, equitable and balanced.

Under fire, the FCC said, Oh, never mind, in 1987, and in 2011 formally removed the language that implemented the Doctrine.

The latest foray by government again as personified by the FCC with a cockamamie attempt to install monitors in newsrooms (both broadcast and print). The FCC, again under intense pressure from editors, publishers and reporters all over the country, left the field in late February.

The FCCs intent was obvious: It wanted to control news content, apparently with an eye toward limiting or eliminating criticism of the Obama administration, if not overtly, then by just having government personnel present to evaluate what stories were printed and/ or aired and what werent and the reasons behind the decisions.

In response to the resistance, Any suggestion that the FCC intends to regulate the speech of news media or plans to put monitors in Americas newsrooms is false. The FCC looks forward to fulfilling its obligation to Congress to report on barriers to entry into the communications marketplace, and is currently revising its proposed study to achieve that goal, Shannon Gilson, an FCC spokesperson, said when the proposal was dropped.

It wasnt intended as intimidation at all, now was it?

So heres what concerns us. When the news medias ox is gored, the outcry emanating from newsrooms is universal. But when the publics ox is gored in the form of regulations on individuals, businesses, taxation and a myriad of other facets of life, the media is silent. Thats because, in our view, the media particularly the broadcast media, but also including wide swaths of print is on governments side. We dont expect the media to suddenly turn to the right, which would result in sharp pullbacks from the regulatory swamp we all now inhabit. Thats too much to ask.

What we would hope for is a more evenhanded approach to government encroachment. That would benefit us all and we suspect the publics approval of media would also experience a rise.

Continue reading here:
Myopic media