Howard Dean and the First Amendment - Third Superpower

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Howard Dean and the First Amendment

Authored by Michael Pate on December 5th, 2003 at 12:17 PM

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. - First Amendment

The media conglomerates now dominate almost half of the markets around the country, meaning Americans get less independent and frequently less dependable news, views and information. James Madison and Thomas Jefferson spoke of the fear that economic power would one day try to seize political power. No consolidated economic power has more opportunity to do this than the consolidated power of media. - Howard Dean

On ideological grounds, absolutely yes, but … I don’t want to answer whether I would break up Fox or not. … What I’m going to do is appoint people to the FCC that believe democracy depends on getting information from all portions of the political spectrum, not just one. - Howard Dean

Some clinicians consider this delusion — that Americans can get their news from only one part of the political spectrum — the gravest of all. They report that no matter how many times sufferers in padded cells are presented with flash cards with the symbols ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, PBS, Time, Newsweek, New York Times, Washington Post, L.A. Times — they remain unresponsive, some in a terrifying near-catatonic torpor. - Charles Krauthammer

Translation: He’s going to meddle in news. He’s going to decree who can and can’t own media outlets. He’s going to break up companies for sport and political pandering. He’s not concerned with the First Amendment. He’s not concerned with the realities of the media business today (if you don’t allow some level of consolidation, then weak outlets will die). Yes, I work in big media. But I don’t own it. I just work in it because I love news and media and I cherish the lack of government involvement in media in this country; I cherish our freedom of speech; I am a First Amendment absolutist. I do not want to see government meddling in our free speech. This isn’t Europe, Howard. Not yet, anyway. - Jeff Jarvis

It turns out that I misunderstood the point that Howard was making. He seems firmly entrenched in the Cass Sunstein mindset.

Links in this entry:

Bill of Rights
Dean vows to break up giant media enterprises
Howard Dean opposing Cass Sunstein
Howard Dean, media meddler
The Delusional Dean

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