The First Hundred Minutes

The First Hundred Minutes of the new Congress should focus on one thing: the return of the Fairness Doctrine. Nothing is more important to maintaining the Republic than the flow of information, uncontrolled and unfiltered, from the world at-large. At least one wrtier is thinking my way.

From Joseph Palermo at the Huffington Post:

New Year's Resolution: Break Up The Media Monopolies

In 2007, the Democratic Party's agenda will be smothered in the cradle without meaningful reform targeting the concentration of the corporate media. The Democrats must put great pressure on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reverse the obscene consolidation of media corporations that has gone on unabated for thirty years. The 1996 "Telecommunications Act," which threw the oligopolizing tendencies of the media into overdrive, must be repealed. . .

At the end of his post, which you should read, Palermo suggests five actions that need to be taken:

1). Enforce anti-trust laws to break up the media oligopolies;
2). Greatly expand the public broadcasting system, (especially news);
3). Publicly finance all political campaigns;
4). Implement a total ban on all political commercials on television;
5). Restore the FCC's fairness doctrine on the public airwaves.

I'd love to see all five implemented, but number five needs to be done first in order to get some immediate attempts at balance into the news room. If action is not taken, we will never hear, really, what corruption and criminal behavior the new Congress is uncovering. We will hear endless spin. We will hear how the Democrats are aiding our enemies. We will hear how the average American supports the Rat Empire and its Corporate Media. We will hear how all the troops think we need more troops... Well, you know what we will hear.

So. Congress. Act.

The First Hundred Minutes.

Act.