FCC Commissioner: U.S. Government Wants To Send 'Researchers' Into Newsrooms To Investigate How News Stories Are Published

The FCC Wades Into the Newsroom -- Ajit Pai, Wall Street Journal

Why is the agency studying 'perceived station bias' and asking about coverage choices?

News organizations often disagree about what Americans need to know. MSNBC, for example, apparently believes that traffic in Fort Lee, N.J., is the crisis of our time. Fox News, on the other hand, chooses to cover the September 2012 attacks on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi more heavily than other networks. The American people, for their part, disagree about what they want to watch.

But everyone should agree on this: The government has no place pressuring media organizations into covering certain stories.

Unfortunately, the Federal Communications Commission, where I am a commissioner, does not agree. Last May the FCC proposed an initiative to thrust the federal government into newsrooms across the country. With its "Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs," or CIN, the agency plans to send researchers to grill reporters, editors and station owners about how they decide which stories to run. A field test in Columbia, S.C., is scheduled to begin this spring.

Read more ....

More News On The FCC Wanting To Send Officials Into Newsrooms

White House to sniff out newsrooms: ‘Troubling and dangerous development’ -- Washington Times
Gov't Monitors in Newsrooms? FCC to Look Into Media Decision-Making -- FOX News
Proposed FCC study of news organizations sparks conservative outcry -- Washington Post
FCC sidesteps explanation on controversial plan to ‘interfere with news stations’ -- RT
FCC Looking to Insert Government Officers to Monitor Newsrooms -- PJ Media
A Brief Guide to the FCC Newsroom Invasion Panic -- The Wire
Critics want FCC media study thrown on ‘trash heap,’ skeptical of changes -- FOX News
Why the FCC should keep its nose out of TV newsrooms -- Howard Kurtz, FOX News
Feds to snoop in newsrooms. What could go wrong? -- Rick Moran, American Thinker

My Comment: Before the NSA surveillance scandal, the IRS targeting political opponents of the administration, and the US Justice Department going after reporters who receive information from whistle-blowers .... I would have laughed this accusation out of the room .... labeling it as an extreme right-wing conspiracy theory. No more now. And while no policy has been enacted (yet) .... it is obvious that there are people in the US government who believe that this is an idea that should be pursued with rigor .... regardless of the opposition and the message that it will send.

Update: With the exception of the Washington Post .... essentially calling the outcry against this proposed FCC study a conservative complaint .... no one in the main stream media has touched this story nor raised an eyebrow on the chilling aspects of what this may mean to news editing and publication.