What! The FEC and FCC infringe upon our absolute and sacred right of free speech? The Devil you say!
And yes, I’m more or less familiar with Prairie Island. But I caution you that Minnesota makes a poor example for political generalizations. I used to think people couldn’t be simultaneously weird and bland, but I was wrong. These are people who think cream of mushroom soup is a sauce, but elected Jesse Ventura to be Governor.
The FEC does not regulate speech.
The FCC regulates the airwaves because they are owned by the public. For the most part, it doesn’t regulate the amount of content of speech.
If you don’t accept the right of people to hear whatever they want and think for themselves, without claiming that they need help from the government to handle “propaganda” then you don’t really believe in democracy and don’t understand the principle of freedom of speech.
Nobody wants you to protect them from speech, or their own psychology.
I don’t think the law doesn’t requires that at all.
Candidates, or anyone else, who want to buy ad time must pay for it, and get as much as they can pay for, no more.
I don’t think that’s true at all. I don’t think there are any restrictions on how much ad time you can buy.
So why do you think others can’t do the same? Are you somehow smarter than everyone else?
Humility? Modest self-effacement? This is not the Way of the Texan.
Camptown ladies sing this song, Oh we do dare day!
See, this is my problem with Lance. He is a very imaginative guy. he imagines that voters are not influenced by professional political liars. This is of course incredibly naive and counter-factual. And yet he is capable of making some very fast and slippery arguments. It’s a real puzzler.
See, this is my problem with you. You misrepresent my argument, and fail to understand it or don’t try.
Of course voters are influenced by professional political liars!
That’s their right.
People have the right to lie, and to believe lies, and to be gullible idiots - or to believe that they are right, and YOU are the gullible idiot. You may not decide for them. They will decide who is lying and what to believe. Not you and not the government. You may not arrogantly declare that you are smarter than everyone else and know what’s a lie or not and regulate speech.
Got it now?
Seriously, this is one of the most fundamental principles of our society. It’s absurd that I have to explain this to you.
Equal Time does not appear to say what you want it to say and has so many exceptions as to render it pretty useless for your argument.
Equal Access, (actually, the Fairness Doctrine), has been a dead letter for over 20 years.
What I’m seeing in 2012 is that for the first time, a sitting President has been allowed to establish a mythology around himself without the media contesting it. In every other election, I’ve felt that the public had a pretty good handle on who the President was. This time is different.
The media dominates the political discourse. Worrying about 30 second ads is like worrying about a stubbed toe when your liver is failing.
That being said, the 1st amendment trumps any concerns I have. If the media wants to go totally in the tank for a President and act as his mouthpiece, that’s their right. As corporations, they have that right.
Fox News is blacked out in your area?
Have you actually read Newsweek, lately?
I really don’t see where your claim originates. I see a lot of claims that Obama, (who has demonstrated no antipathy to business or capitalism, in general), is supposed to be a socialist. I see all sorts of claims that Obama is secretly arranging for a Republican House and a Republican-filibustered Senate to take every gun away from every citizen in the U.S. despite his significant silence on issues related to guns since he took office. I really don’t see any mythology of his own creation or created by the DNC or by George Stephanopolous or by anyone else who supports him being allowed to go uncontested.
This worshipful media that you refer to… Does that include such remedial media as Fox Gnaws, NewsBusters, Rush Blimpball, Nancy Gross, NewsMuck, Blightbart, etc. ad newseum?
No, but it does include the New York Times, MSNBC, CNN, CBS, NBC, ABC, and Time.
So, you’re just complaining that not EVERY media outlet slavishly follows the Republican line?
There’s Fox. That’s the only conservative TV channel. The print media is more diverse.
I’m noting that the networks have far more influence when it comes to being kingmakers than anyone funding 30 second TV ads.
I dare say Stewart or Colbert could bring one or the other candidate’s poll numbers down with a good joke if they wanted to.
I think the liberal conspiracy already got to Breitbart elucidator. Well, not the site, sure…
In fact, the liberal media already took care of Hitchens and Gore Vidal, presumably because they didn’t toe the line.
There’s never a story that challenges Obama’s image in those outlets?
None of them reported, for instance, Romney’s comments criticizing Obama on the whole embassy attack thing?
Because a bunch of Romney voters watch Steward and change their minds based on what they see there?
Let them hate us, so long as they fear us.