FCC Commisioner Calls for Government Involvment in Journalism

Federal Communications Commissioner Michael Copps decried the decline of “real journalism” and called for the government to intervene during a speech to the FCBA on Tuesday.

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According to The Hill Copps told the audience that he was disappointed that the commission hasn’t acted before now. Copps went on to say that the decline of “real journalism” justifies government involvement and that “the news is suffering from a bad case of substance abuse.” The main culprits for Copps, a Democrat are Fox News’ Bernard Goldberg and Bill O’Reilly who he accused of taking his own words out of context. Copps thinks that too much news is being driven by opinion and not by facts and he wants to change that. The only reason that Copps is even discussing this is because of the success of Fox News. Just like the idea of restoring the Fairness Doctrine liberals are looking for ways to mute the conservative message that has become so successful because of the likes of Fox on cable and Rush on the radio. Does anyone actually think that the Democrats would be calling for these measures if MSNBC and not Fox was the top rated cable news network? Or if liberal newspapers weren’t suffering at the hands of conservative websites like Drudge or Newsmax? This isn’t about the decline of what Copps considers the decline of “real journalism” whatever that means but about the liberals lack of success in the new world order of journalism that has given conservatives more of a voice. As a liberal Democrat Copps should be front and center in defending free speech but any government intervention in journalism will do exactly the opposite and stifle opinion.