Today’s totalitarian ideas are always disguised as righteous plans to ensure “fairness” and “social justice” and they often start in Europe. Then the US Democrats drool over them and scheme to sneak them into the US.
The latest in Europe is to take much more control over the media. German flagship daily the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has a piece called: EU Advisers Wish To Monitor Media More Strictly. Hat-tip: www.achgut.com/. To what extent this will impact blogs, I have no idea.
A group of EU Commission advisers say, “Europe’s freedom of the press is in danger” and so Europe has to act. Right!
The advisers are calling for stricter state monitoring of the media. According to the FAZ, the group says, “Some media outlets should be financially supported.” And others not?
Anyone living in Europe following the media to any extent knows that Europe’s traditional mainstream leftist media are in dire straits. A number of center-left dailies have recently bitten the dust, and so we suppose they are now looking for generous handouts.
The FAZ writes that stricter monitoring by the EU state would “ensure pluralism and quality”. The group of advisors proposes that the “European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights should monitor freedom of the press and free speech in member states”. You see, today there are media outlets out there who feel their rights to free speech are being infringed because citizens are no longer interested in paying for their crap. Now the government should force citizens to pay for crap that nobody wants – through subsidies.
The advisors also say an “independent monitoring agency“ made up of scientists could be set up. The advisers say that “more pluralism must be achieved, especially in the online media“.
The advisory group is hardly made up of lightweight bureaucrats. It includes former German Justice Minister Herta Däubler-Gmelin (who once compared President George W. Bush to Hitler) and Latvia former President Varia Vike-Freiberga. Däubler-Gmelin for example is calling on Europe to require its member states to have “independent media panels that would impose fines, force counter views, or revoke media licenses”, and to make sure these member-state media panels “abide to European values”. Sounds like free-speech policing to me.
The advisers believe that “freedom of the press is threatened by political powers, excessive commercial power, new business models, changing media landscape and the rise of new media.”
The FAZ writes:
One particularly large problem the advisers find is the creeping loss of quality in reporting, as Ms. Vike-Freiberga showed. Among other things, it arises from the new media like in the Internet where anyone is allowed to disseminate information. “For this reason the group also proposes that it is also essential for the state to support unprofitable media are essential.”
The panels also says that media should comply to a code of conduct and guidelines for publishing.
So, will Obama try again to push through the Fairness Act in USA? Don’t be surprised if he does.
The plurality is already there. Deal with the quality like this:
http://www.ted.com/talks/markham_nolan_how_to_separate_fact_and_fiction_online.html
A simple solution that saves money and encourages people to think for themselves. But then, the money saved was money they were going to pay themselves so I doubt they’ll go for it. And who wants peasants who can think?
For the left, it is always the exact opposite of what they say it is. Remember Orwell.
The truth, for the Left, is whatever they want it to be.
My left newspaper today was in total adoration for Obama. They reproduced translated fragments from his speech. Just for Dutch speaking readers the last sentence of his climate paragraph: ‘Sommigen ontkennen weliswaar het overweldigende wetenschappelijk bewijs, maar niemand kan voorbij gaan aan de verwoestende kracht van razende vuren, verlammende droogtes en machtige stormen’.
Also, “The advisors also say an “independent monitoring agency“ made up of scientists could be set up.” Why scientists? What do they know about free speech and the quality of discourse more than the rest of us?
Would I be surprised that the “group of EU Commission advisers” is made up of scientists?
I suppose it’s because in Europe scientists, doctors and professors are never wrong.
Mainstream media has been sorely corrupted and is nothing more than “political pablum” aimed at unsuspecting readers to reinforce Government’s agendas. Expect more pressure from Governments to shut down the blogosphere who seem to have taken over the role of “reporting the truth”!
“One particularly large problem the advisers find is the creeping loss of quality in reporting… Among other things, it arises from the new media like in the Internet where anyone is allowed to disseminate information.”
Is it just me or does this sound like a storyline for an original Star Trek series episode? A good title would be “The Advisors”.
Let’s hope it stays in the realm of fiction because I believe you and I are “anyone”.
The simplistic underlying idea seems to be: “Europe’s freedom of the press is in danger” so we must restrict the freedom of the media. And we (the self-proclaimed EU elite) must define what is right and wrong.
The next step will be to apply the same principle to freedom of speech: “Europe’s freedom of speech is in danger”, we (the EU elite) must define what can be said.
“… where anyone is allowed to disseminate information”. Formerly called freedom of speech.
Well, they surely hate all media they can’t control. Two thirds or so of the Bilderberg participants are media people; they are not there to report about the meetings but to receive their orders. In the US, the CFR has 1,400 members, many of them media people, Rupert Murdock amongst them (yes, Bilderbergers and CFR control “left” and “right”.)
Some US newspapers are already supported by grants from foundations to help keep them in an upright position.
I’m not sure it will be necessary to reign in the internet in the US. It’s actually a very effective tool for the government as is. Children in school can be bullied and tormented on line if they dare to question the teacher. Then there are the individuals who are reportedly paid to go on line and rip apart all opposition. American politics has become rule by bullies using whatever tools available.