"Trump's FCC chair, Ajit Pai wants to kill the wounded agency off," warns Flander, "and he may do it, to all intents and purposes, at the Commission's meeting this December 14th." (Image: Fight for the Future)
Life or Death for the FCC
If we don’t start learning from our history and perhaps repeating some of it, we might was well start burning books.
It's life or death for the Federal Communications Commission and death may be the honest option.
Let's face it, the FCC's mission , to regulate communications media in the public interest, has been beaten to a pulp by politicians of both parties over the last t wo decades. Now Trump's FCC chair, Ajit Pai wants to kill the wounded agency off, and he may do it, to all intents and purposes, at the Commission's meeting this December 14th.
T he FCC date s back close almost a century to a time when new technology was bursting with potential and open to use or abuse, with devastating implications for democracy. Its mission was forged by movements who understood that the nation teetered on a brink. Would the US be the land of misogyny, white supremacy, militarism, anti-semitism and anti-immigrant bias, or something better?
Would monopoly capitalism accumulate unchecked? The social justice movements of the 1920s and 30s disagreed about many things, but they understood from experience that no one of them stood a chance of shifting power or displacing arrogance without a functioning pubic information exchange. The future of the nation would only go one way if only those who could pay could have a say.
In the 1940s, the chairman of the FCC was a civil rights advocate, one of Rosa Parks' lawyers . Clifford Durr pursued media justice with a social justice passion because he and the movements at his back, believed that diversity, localism and competition were civil rights means to a civil, fair society.
All these years on, decades of paid propaganda have many Americans convinced that government has no business meddling in the business of media. Social movements mostly don't get too involved in media regulation either, because, well, groups like the AFL-CIO and the NAACP can afford to buy time big-dollar ads on the big bosses' media -- and cross their fingers.
Reverse net neutrality? Open the floodgates to more media monopoly? Chairman Pai, a former staffer to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, has in mind to accomplish all that and more. The FCC will probably vote on both things on Thursday. Pai leads the commission's Republican Majority in lockstep and they've already done-in LifeLine, the meager subsidy that helped low income people connect to doctors and nurses and public assistance. They wiped out the Durr-era rule that required broadcasters to maintain local-stations too. Social responsibility? Corporations aren't ignoring the human cost of communications break-downs. Far from it, they're just figuring out how to profit off getting cell service back up and running in Puerto Rico.
No, what surprises me, isn't Pai or his pals. It's us. If we don't start learning from our history and perhaps repeating some of it, we might was well start burning books. Anything with Democracy in the title.
We are at a crossroads
This country and this world are at a monumental crossroads. In a few short weeks, US voters will have an opportunity to beat back the forces of fascism and confront the billionaires who are rigging the economy, our media system, and our democracy, making it increasingly impossible for ordinary people to get by. We’re not just talking about the election. We’re talking about what must be done once these fascist elements are vanquished from power. We need a bolder set of solutions than what either major party has so far been willing to offer and a working-class movement ready to fight like hell for it. Trump didn't emerge from nowhere. The conditions that fueled MAGA authoritarianism were created by decades of radical neoliberal economic policies and a corrupt political system dominated by corporate interests. They slashed taxes on the super-rich, promising that the benefits would trickle down. They said giveaways to the corporate titans would make life more affordable for the rest of us. It was all bullshit. And when a bitter, betrayed populace searches for someone to blame, right-wing demagogues have little trouble finding scapegoats. People know when they're being lied to, but you won't hear any of this from the corporate media. Only independent journalism—powered and funded by people who believe in building a better world—can deliver truly trustworthy daily news. Our Fall Campaign is underway, and we need your help. To power our newsroom through the rest of the year, we need to raise $125,000 by midnight on October 31. So if you share our vision, please contribute whatever you can to sustain our work. |
It's life or death for the Federal Communications Commission and death may be the honest option.
Let's face it, the FCC's mission , to regulate communications media in the public interest, has been beaten to a pulp by politicians of both parties over the last t wo decades. Now Trump's FCC chair, Ajit Pai wants to kill the wounded agency off, and he may do it, to all intents and purposes, at the Commission's meeting this December 14th.
T he FCC date s back close almost a century to a time when new technology was bursting with potential and open to use or abuse, with devastating implications for democracy. Its mission was forged by movements who understood that the nation teetered on a brink. Would the US be the land of misogyny, white supremacy, militarism, anti-semitism and anti-immigrant bias, or something better?
Would monopoly capitalism accumulate unchecked? The social justice movements of the 1920s and 30s disagreed about many things, but they understood from experience that no one of them stood a chance of shifting power or displacing arrogance without a functioning pubic information exchange. The future of the nation would only go one way if only those who could pay could have a say.
In the 1940s, the chairman of the FCC was a civil rights advocate, one of Rosa Parks' lawyers . Clifford Durr pursued media justice with a social justice passion because he and the movements at his back, believed that diversity, localism and competition were civil rights means to a civil, fair society.
All these years on, decades of paid propaganda have many Americans convinced that government has no business meddling in the business of media. Social movements mostly don't get too involved in media regulation either, because, well, groups like the AFL-CIO and the NAACP can afford to buy time big-dollar ads on the big bosses' media -- and cross their fingers.
Reverse net neutrality? Open the floodgates to more media monopoly? Chairman Pai, a former staffer to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, has in mind to accomplish all that and more. The FCC will probably vote on both things on Thursday. Pai leads the commission's Republican Majority in lockstep and they've already done-in LifeLine, the meager subsidy that helped low income people connect to doctors and nurses and public assistance. They wiped out the Durr-era rule that required broadcasters to maintain local-stations too. Social responsibility? Corporations aren't ignoring the human cost of communications break-downs. Far from it, they're just figuring out how to profit off getting cell service back up and running in Puerto Rico.
No, what surprises me, isn't Pai or his pals. It's us. If we don't start learning from our history and perhaps repeating some of it, we might was well start burning books. Anything with Democracy in the title.
It's life or death for the Federal Communications Commission and death may be the honest option.
Let's face it, the FCC's mission , to regulate communications media in the public interest, has been beaten to a pulp by politicians of both parties over the last t wo decades. Now Trump's FCC chair, Ajit Pai wants to kill the wounded agency off, and he may do it, to all intents and purposes, at the Commission's meeting this December 14th.
T he FCC date s back close almost a century to a time when new technology was bursting with potential and open to use or abuse, with devastating implications for democracy. Its mission was forged by movements who understood that the nation teetered on a brink. Would the US be the land of misogyny, white supremacy, militarism, anti-semitism and anti-immigrant bias, or something better?
Would monopoly capitalism accumulate unchecked? The social justice movements of the 1920s and 30s disagreed about many things, but they understood from experience that no one of them stood a chance of shifting power or displacing arrogance without a functioning pubic information exchange. The future of the nation would only go one way if only those who could pay could have a say.
In the 1940s, the chairman of the FCC was a civil rights advocate, one of Rosa Parks' lawyers . Clifford Durr pursued media justice with a social justice passion because he and the movements at his back, believed that diversity, localism and competition were civil rights means to a civil, fair society.
All these years on, decades of paid propaganda have many Americans convinced that government has no business meddling in the business of media. Social movements mostly don't get too involved in media regulation either, because, well, groups like the AFL-CIO and the NAACP can afford to buy time big-dollar ads on the big bosses' media -- and cross their fingers.
Reverse net neutrality? Open the floodgates to more media monopoly? Chairman Pai, a former staffer to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, has in mind to accomplish all that and more. The FCC will probably vote on both things on Thursday. Pai leads the commission's Republican Majority in lockstep and they've already done-in LifeLine, the meager subsidy that helped low income people connect to doctors and nurses and public assistance. They wiped out the Durr-era rule that required broadcasters to maintain local-stations too. Social responsibility? Corporations aren't ignoring the human cost of communications break-downs. Far from it, they're just figuring out how to profit off getting cell service back up and running in Puerto Rico.
No, what surprises me, isn't Pai or his pals. It's us. If we don't start learning from our history and perhaps repeating some of it, we might was well start burning books. Anything with Democracy in the title.