Tag: NBC

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First Amendment rights general freedom media and media people moral hazard national politics & policies Regulating Protest too much government

Crossing the Twitter Rubicon

Liberty, Trump, censorship, NBC, New York Times, First Amendment

No sooner had I upbraided media folks for overreacting to various presidential peccadillos regarding Puerto Rico, when Donald J. Trump, in his running media battle, crossed a line with this week’s most notorious tweet.

He first complained, perhaps correctly, that, “Fake @NBCNews made up a story that I wanted a ‘tenfold’ increase in our U.S. nuclear arsenal. Pure fiction, made up to demean.” But then the chief executive officer of the United States of America tweeted this: “With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License?”

The answer to his question is: never.

The Federal Communications Commission licenses the network affiliates of ABC, NBC and CBS across the country — not the networks themselves — to broadcast their television signals using public airwaves. Still, through those affiliates a tyrannical FCC could no doubt damage the networks. 

Government licensing of media outlets is anathema to the First Amendment. And the thought of the POTUS actively threatening the ability of NBC or other networks to report the news as they freely decide is … well, unthinkable.

I don’t buy the accusations that Trump is undermining freedom of the press by criticizing the press — even arguing by tweet, “The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @CNN, @NBCNews and many more) … is the enemy of the American People!” The president is as free to criticize the media as the media is free to criticize the president.

It might be his duty.

But considering the use of official government power to potentially “shut down NBC and other American networks,” as UK’s Independent reported, or just to temper their coverage?

Despotism.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob. 

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Categories
national politics & policies

Endless Fog of Endless War

Yesterday, NBC’s Chuck Todd opened a “Meet the Press” segment by calling U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq “wars now without an end.”

“The U.S. now seems to be in a semi-​permanent state of war,” added Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel.

“Right now, we’re just in damage control,” explained Lt. General Dan Bolger, Retired, the author of Why We Lost: A General’s Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. “Our enemies, the Taliban and ISIS, are talking about winning.”

Mr. Todd asked, “Why do we have this incredible military that can’t win these wars?”

“The military can give you a quick victory over a conventional army. It cannot deliver a rebuilt country in the place you go,” replied the general. “That takes an effort of the entire U.S. population and government. And moreover, it takes the commitment of the American people for the long term.”

And then Baghdad and Kabul will look a lot like Chicago or Boston?

“At what point do we walk away?” Todd wanted to know. Never?

“It becomes difficult to walk away, because these situations are spinning quite badly out of control,” offered Sarah Chayes, now with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and formerly an assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “And it’s spreading.”

Our decade-​plus in Iraq and Afghanistan has cost us greatly and accomplished little good, if any.

Even a century of Americans fighting and occupying and pacifying these countries will not succeed. The cost, not just in billions of tax dollars, but also in thousands of our countrymen dead and maimed, is unacceptable.

It’s time to really end the “endless” wars.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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media and media people

The Most Loathed Lobbyist

Michael Needham is a lobbyist. At least, he was called a “conservative lobbyist” repeatedly during his recent appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press.

Now, I don’t have anything against lobbyists, per se. We have the right to petition government, as individuals, or for businesses, civic leagues, unions. Disagree with a group? Balk at a group’s influence? Well, when millions and billions are handed out — or taken away — through programs, taxes and regulations enacted on any given day in Washington, a company neglects to hire the eyes and ears and mouth of a lobbyist at its own risk. How can we begrudge them their defense?Mike Needham

On the other hand, the right to plead for special favors doesn’t justify our government doing the bidding of those special-​interest pleaders.

“The problem,” Needham explained, is “33,000 lobbyists” that mostly work to preserve the “status quo in Washington D.C.”

NBC’s Andrea Mitchell snarkily shot back, “And how are those lobbyists different from you as a lobbyist?”

Unfortunately, he didn’t get a chance to answer: time ran out.

Allow me.

Needham heads up Heritage Action, a 700,000 member grassroots “lobbying organization” that advocates for conservative policies promoted by the Heritage Foundation.

He is not asking for a bridge project, a tweak to the tax code, a money-​making regulatory advantage. He is advocating for what he and thousands of Americans believe is the right set of general policies for the country.

I don’t always agree with Needham or Heritage Action, certainly, but it’s sad to see him slapped with the misleading “lobbyist” label — for the more you lobby for the public interest, the more loathed you are in Washington.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Second Amendment rights

Magazine Misfire

David Gregory, of NBC, is one of those folks who wants to prohibit not merely criminal acts, but also objects and products that can be used as aids in some of those acts.

It’s not an uncommon attitude. I know conservatives who want to prohibit smoking utensils such as bongs, because their main use tends overwhelmingly to be for smoking illegal substances. To find someone in the “main stream media” supporting a similar ban on objects — such as certain guns and types of ammunition — is hardly surprising.

On Meet the Press, December 23, Gregory interviewed the head of the NRA, pressing the spokesman to concede, “if it’s possible to reduce the loss of life, you’re up for trying it.” The man took the bait. Then Gregory switched the topic away from the NRA’s notion of placing armed guards in every school to …

Well, Gregory retrieved and held aloft a “magazine for ammunition that carries 30 bullets.” He hazarded that prohibiting such devices, leaving legal only smaller-​sized magazines, might reduce loss of life.

“Loss-​of-​life reduction,” though, proves to be not much of a standard. There are many ways to reduce crime: imprison everyone in a criminal risk category, without trial, might do that very well. Perish that thought, though.

Many other innovations might seem plausible, as well, but nevertheless unleash counterproductive side effects.

What’s interesting about this case, though, is that Gregory held up a magazine that turns out to be illegal in Washington, DC, where Meet the Press is shot.

His “crime” is now under investigation.

I’m conflicted: On the one hand, he did nothing wrong. On the other hand, he supports such unprincipled laws, so … book him. 

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
crime and punishment media and media people

NBC Bears False Witness

The Trayvon Martin shooting has gripped the nation for weeks now. In my Townhall column on the subject, nearly two weeks ago when we didn’t know as much of what we think we know now, I withheld judgment on the actual responsibility for the shooting:

We know too little about Mr. Zimmerman’s state of mind before or during this tragic clash. But whether his shooting of Trayvon Martin was spurred by race or an itchy trigger finger or a hero complex or something we know absolutely nothing about, or was actually somehow in self defense, is beside the point.

The point is that our justice system ought to get to the bottom of it.

And I concluded that public reaction and a free press were doing what is required in such cases, spurring government action.NBC self-besmirched

But I need to make an amendment: Not all media are equal; some have behaved in socially irresponsible ways. NBC especially. This major news source aired George Zimmerman’s call to the police, but with a drastic editorial cut — and this sound edit pre-​disposed all listeners to think Mr. Zimmerman a racist. After an “investigation,” the network apologized.

But not on air. Those poor souls relying on NBC still may think that Zimmerman was racially profiling Martin, could think nothing but.

Shame on NBC for not apologizing on air, but in a press release. And for not apologizing to Mr. Zimmerman. And for offering no explanation of what happened. The news source’s sound edit was more than a distortion, says Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center, it advanced “a falsehood.”

Poor reporting is disappointing, but the press bearing false witness is something much worse.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
education and schooling

My Child Before My Country

Last week, NBC launched its Education Nation Summit, stating its goal as providing “every American with an opportunity to pursue the best education in the world.”

Perhaps you see our trouble right from the start: There’s little agreement on what constitutes “the best education.” Best for whom?

NBC says, “Education is the key to our future success as a country …  Yet, we have allowed our students to fall behind.… One-​third of our students drop out of high school, and another third aren’t college-​ready when they graduate.… Our workforce is largely unprepared for today’s rapidly changing marketplace, and we face stiff competition from abroad.… The stakes are high for our economy and for our society as a whole.”

I have three kids: One grown, one a college freshman and one still at home. My wife, with my expert advice and assistance, has homeschooled all three. We have not concerned ourselves with what is best for the country or the economy or how to compete with other nations. We have focused, solely, on what is best for our kids — on what they care about, what inspires them.

As long Americans try to solve “our” education problems as “national policy” to be battled over by politicians and teachers’ unions, we will fail. 

Focus, instead, on each individual child, not an Education Nation.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.