FCC Commissioner Wants to Test the ‘Public Value’ of Every Broadcast Station

Here it comes…. we knew it was coming…. another Marxist dump on a Friday. It speaks for itself and a real heart thumper. I wonder how NPR will meet the criteria. Juan Williams sure didn’t fair so well. The FCC is schduled to meet December 21. Mark it on your calendars. The shortest day, the longest night. Perfect Holiday gift. Some great clips over at

Hot Air:

Here’s your FCC at work, ensuring that freedom of speech and property rights are defended on America’s airwaves. Just kidding! The Blaze and Naked Emperor News has two clips of FCC commissioners demanding unprecedented authority over prior restraint of speech and seizure of private property in order to satisfy their ideas of — you guessed it — “diversity

This is an abbreviated portion found over at CNS:

American journalism is in “grave peril,” FCC Commissioner Michael Copps says, and to bolster “traditional media,” he said the Federal Communications Commission should conduct a “public value test” of every commercial broadcast station at relicensing time.

In a speech at the Columbia University School of Journalism in New York on Thursday, Copps also said station relicensing should happen every four years instead of the current eight.

“If a station passes the Public Value Test, it of course keeps the license it has earned to use the people’s airwaves,” Copps said. “If not, it goes on probation for a year, renewable for an additional year if it demonstrates measurable progress. If the station fails again, give the license to someone who will use it to serve the public interest.”

Ever since Barack Obama became president, prominent conservatives have warned about liberal efforts to squelch conservative and Christian talk-radio.

Although Copps has said the FCC will not reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, his prescription for “testing” commercial broadcast stations (see below) will alarm defenders of free speech and free enterprise.

According to Copps, the FCC’s Public Value Test would include seven areas — and most of the following text is taken verbatim from his speech:

— Meaningful Commitments to News and Public Affairs Programming.  Copps said stations meeting certain benchmarks of progress would qualify for “expedited handling of their license renewals.” He said he hopes the FCC will “put the brakes” on cross-ownership of newspapers and broadcast stations.

— Enhanced Disclosure. Requiring information about what programs a station airs allows viewers to judge whether their local station should be subsidized with free spectrum privileges, Copps said. It opens a window on a station’s performance. 

— Political Advertising Disclosure. …  But we the people have a right to know who is bank-rolling these ads beyond some wholly uninformative and vapidly-named group that appears on the bottom of the screen to mask the special interests it really represents.   I propose that the FCC quickly determine the extent of its current authority to compel release of what interests are paying for this flood of anonymous political advertising — and if we lack the tools we need to compel disclosure, let’s go ask for them.

— Reflecting Diversity.  Copps noted that people of color own only about 3.6% of full-power commercial television stations. But he also said diversity encompasses how groups are depicted in the media — too often stereotyped and caricatured, he said — and what roles minorities and women have in owning and managing media companies.  The FCC’s Diversity Advisory Committee has spent years providing us with specific, targeted recommendations to correct this injustice., Copps said. “How sad it is that most of these recommendations have not been put to a Commission vote. It is time to right this awful wrong.”

— Community Discovery.    Diversity of programming suffers, minorities are ignored, and local self-expression becomes the exception.  Here’s some good news: Community Discovery would not be difficult to do in this Internet age, when technology can so easily facilitate dialogue.

— Local and Independent Programming.  According to Copps, the goal is more localism in our program diet, more local news and information, and a lot less streamed-in homogenization and monotonous nationalized music at the expense of local and regional talent.  Homogenized music and entertainment from huge conglomerates constrains creativity, suppresses local talent, and detracts from the great tapestry of our nation’s cultural diversity.  We should be working toward a solution wherein a certain percentage of prime-time programming—I have suggested 25 percent—is locally or independently-produced.  Public Service Announcements should also be more localized and more of them aired in prime-time, too.  And PEG channels—public, educational and government programming—deserve first-class treatment if we are to have a first class media.

— Public Safety.   Stations, like government, have a solemn duty to protect the safety of the people.  “These few criteria for a Public Value Test are neither excessive nor onerous,’ Copps said in his speech.

“But they would get us back to the original licensing bargain between broadcasters and the people: in return for free use of airwaves that belong exclusively to the people, licensees agree to serve the public interest as good stewards of a precious national resource As the old question goes:  If not now, when?  If not us, who?”

Copps said the FCC and Congress in the future will need to examine the rules governing the structure of media ownership. And he advocated increasing support for public broadcasting, which he described as “the jewel of our media landscape.” More at CNS News

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