Wonderful: FCC Commissioner Wants Government Hand in Media Policy

Of course to this twit, real journalism means anything but Fox News, of course. Had your fill of state-run media? Apparently Michael Copps feels you're not getting enough.

Federal Communications Commissioner Michael Copps made a case for a government hand in media policy in a speech to the FCBA on Tuesday.

A government hand in media policy. That normally wound send shivers down the spine of the media, except they're mostly in the tank already.

"The commission can act now. It should have acted on the media before now. I am disappointed that it has not," he said.

Translation: Time to up the ante in the War on Fox News.

The decline of "real journalism" justifies federal involvement, according to Copps. "The news is suffering from a bad case of substance abuse," he said.

The Democratic commissioner pointed to Fox News' Bernie Goldberg and Bill O'Reilly as examples of the problem with today's media landscape, saying the pair has taken his own words out of context.

So because Copps doesn't like Goldberg and O'Reilly, we now must have federal intervention in media policy. Sure, that'll go over well. This segment from the O'Reilly December 6 program apparently got under the very thin skin of Copps.

As The Factor reported last week, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps implied that government action may be needed to correct America's lack of "news and information." FNC's Bernie Goldberg contended that Copp represents a legitimate threat. "When an FCC commissioner complains about the way news is covered," Goldberg said, "and talks about a 'government test of public values' to determine who gets their licenses reviewed, that's something my liberal friends would normally call a 'chilling effect.' But they're not concerned about this because Copps has only one goal, and that's to shut down conservative talk radio and move on from there." The Factor argued that the FCC is unlikely to target conservative media: "If they tried that, they would then have to intrude in NBC and PBS and NPR - all of the liberal organs would be under the same scrutiny as Fox News and talk radio. And if President Obama gets behind this effort, I predict that would be the end of his administration."

Sounds like two men voicing opinions. If Copps is unable to differentiate that from some real journalism, he's unfit for his job.

Strangely enough, it's diversity Copps seeks.

Congress has given the FCC power to get involved in the Communications Acts, according to Copps. It may want to give the agency more power to promote media diversity and competition, he said.

Except for those diverse opinions he doesn't like, of course.

A curious aside today is this story about Obama's state run media from state run ABC.