Happy Hump Day, everyone! It’s not often that I talk to you all on a Wednesday, thanks to Kyle’s regular feature, which gives me the day off. But today I have a couple of things to tell you about.
First, Momma at Tales From the Road Less Traveled is running a contest to benefit the Clay Elementary School PTA. You could win a pre-paid American Express card in the amount of up to $200! Visit Tales From the Road Less Traveled for more details.
Second, I want to bring an issue in the House of Representatives to your attention. I don’t like to get political on this blog. Believe me, I cringed when writing the last few weeks of reviews of (Not) Keeping Up With Our Parents. But this issue is important to my family, and I think it’s important to you too, so I feel like I have to bring it up.
The issue is the Broadcaster Freedom Act. The Broadcaster Freedom Act would ensure that broadcasters retain their right to free speech on the American airwaves. There has recently been talk of limiting that right in congress, and the Broadcaster Freedom Act would block that attempt.
The Broadcaster Freedom Act directly impacts my family. My husband works for a Christian radio station. Without the Broadcaster Freedom Act, it’s hard to imagine what the future of that radio station would be. They could be required to present viewpoints directly in conflict with the Christian faith. They could also be required to conduct an “Ascertainment of Community Needs,” where they would have to hold community meetings to determine whether the content on the station is appropriate. And then they would need to file a lot of supporting paperwork in order to renew their broadcast license.
These requirements would no doubt lead to the demise of many small radio stations. Rather than discussing controversial issues, radio stations would just stop broadcasting them, so as not to risk action by the FCC. Obviously, this act directly impacts my husband’s job, and would impact the jobs of many others throughout the United States.
My other concern is where does the regulation of free speech end? If the freedom of broadcasters is limited, what’s to say the freedom of bloggers will not be limited in the future? Like a small radio station, if too many restrictions were placed on what I could write, I’d just stop writing. It wouldn’t be worth the hassle.
And it’s sad when issues aren’t discussed, because it’s too much of a hassle to discuss them. Our country’s whole legislative process is centered on discussion, and we shouldn’t limit that discussion in any way, including the freedom of our radio stations to discuss issues that are controversial in the United States.
I love that in this country if you want to start a business, a radio station, or even a blog, you have the freedom to do so. The market will decide whether or not you are successful. That’s true of business, that’s true of radio stations, and that’s even true of this blog. I would never want to see that freedom curtailed.
If you agree that radio station owners, employees, and program hosts should continue to have free speech, please contact your Congressional Representative and urge them to sign the discharge petition to bring the Broadcaster’s Freedom Act (H.R. 2905) up for a vote. Currently the vote is being blocked, but if 23 more congressional representatives sign the petition (as of June 19), the House will be able to vote on the Broadcaster’s Freedom Act.
To see if your representative has signed the petition, click here.
To contact your representative, click here.
Thanks!
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June 25th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Thanks Lynnae! For mentioning my contest (currently, there is only ONE person in the running for the prize. Should be like shooting fish in a barrel for her) and more importantly bringing this issue out for those of us who don’t keep up with the issues being presented before congress. This is a serious one and I’m glad for the opportunity to learn about it and take action.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:38 am
I heard about this on Focus on the Family earlier this week. You can also sign the Focus on the Family petition at:
http://www.focuspetitions.com/155/petition.asp
Thanks for bringing this up, Lynnae!
June 25th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
I checked on my congressman, and he already signed. But, I did go ahead and send him an e-mail thanking him for signing. Typically, my congressman agrees with me on what he votes for…but I’m sure it’s nice for him to get some support instead of only e-mails against what he’s doing :-). Thanks for reminding us about this issue.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Lynnae, thanks for bringing up this issue. While it does not have the immediate impact on my life as it does yours, I also agree that stations should be able to broadcast whatever information or genre they want to, without being required to balance the broadcast with opposing views.
The so-called “Fairness Doctrine” isn’t very fair to radio stations, particularly smaller ones who can ill-afford to balance air time with views in opposition to their listenership, sponsors, etc.
June 25th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
I agree. I have sent my rep an email to hopefully get this going. Free speech rules!!! The more restrictions we put it, the less “American” we become.
June 25th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Thanks for bringing this important issue to our attention, Lynnae. Something to pray about too.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Most our news in this little town comes from the little local radio station. I would hate to think that they would be saddled with any more regulatory issues than they already have. The links were helpful in my getting this done! Thanks!
June 26th, 2008 at 10:11 am
I’m usually pretty on top of things but this issue somehow slipped under the radar. I think that’s what the FCC wants. I don’t think there is anything wrong with occasionally expressing your political view because it helps color your writing and you can’t take yourself out of YOUR blog.
June 26th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Great post on the broadcaster freedom issue! My rep is Henry Brown from SC and I made sure he’s signed it. Thanks for posting about such an important issue.
July 7th, 2008 at 10:37 am
I wrote my congressman, and just heard back .. The essence of his message was that no, he hasn’t signed, and that he disagreed with the withdrawing of the Fairness Doctrine to begin with, but that he’d keep my views in mind. I hope there’s better luck with the other reps who haven’t signed yet.
Keep making the message known!
January 8th, 2009 at 10:21 am
It’s a shame that unholy toxic corporate money controls most radio stations in this country. The Broadcaster Freedom act will mean that wealthy corporations will be able to use the public airwaves to say anything they want. For example, General Electric, via it’s holding company’s radio stations, can slant the news or opinions expressed on the air towards sending your children to fight another war. Why would they do that? Because they are defensr contractors and they make money selling bombs and bullets. They don’t make money keeping your children home, eith the country at peace. The Fairness Doctrine says no matter who owns the radio stations, the total of what gets sent out on publicly owned airwaves must be representative of that public. It’s they only way to hear both sides of an issue in a country where five or six corporations own most of the radio stations.
January 8th, 2009 at 10:41 am
In the end, the fairness doctrine will hurt the people working at the radio stations, and will also hurt the small, privately owned radio stations, which are apparently not the radio stations you have the biggest beef with.
If radio stations are forced to run programming that nobody listens to, they can’t get advertisers. If they have no advertisers, they go under, putting everyday working people out of work. I know, because my husband was in radio sales for many years. We are a family that would be affected.
The radio stations don’t slant the news based on what they want people to hear. They run programming that brings in listeners, because listeners bring in advertisers, which is how they make their money. If a show gets no listeners, it gets dropped.
There are plenty of media outlets in the United States…Radio, TV, the internet. News from any viewpoint is widely available. And big companies like General Electric will survive and continue to promote whatever message they have, despite the law. Targeting one medium in the name of fairness only ends up being unfair to the people who depend on that medium to pay the bills.