Publicity stuntmen
Protecting freedom of hot air.Just when you thought Attorney General Mark Shurtleff couldn't top his grandstanding threat to drag the college Bowl Championship Series into court for ignoring the Utah Utes — he signs onto an effort to keep God in the presidential inauguration.
Apparently, some atheist, as atheists do, is suing to stop Obama from saying "so help me God" at the end of his oath. Shurtleff pontificates:
President Obama has a constitutional right to have an invocation, a benediction and to swear on a Bible.No kidding. But it is, thank the Constitution, optional.
But Shurtleff's not the only Utah politicians trying to grab a cheap headline for championing a non-issue. Congressman-on-training wheels Jason Chaffetz is co-sponsoring the Broadcaster Freedom Act that would to ensure that Democrats don't reinstate the so-called Fairness Doctrine. Chaffetz shows he knows how to get lots of free radio air time:
America's founders would be appalled to see the government trampling the First Amendment rights of free press through the kind of micromanagement the so-called Fairness Doctrine requires.Never mind that Democrats say they have no intention of stifling the blather of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Maybe Chaffetz can get one-time Air America host and Minnesota senator-elect Al Franken to carry the bill in the Senate.
6 Comments:
I've had a case waiting at the AG's office for over 3 months now. They have never once called me, emailed, or mailed me regarding my case.
Heaven forbid AG Shurtleff do something to actually help the people that elected him.
you are the biggest moron on the planet and your blog is a freaking joke. when do you get laid off?
Shutleff doesn't do anything to help the people that elected him.
But he does help the people that greased his palm.
I only have a problem with the cultists around here getting sworn in with the quad.
We have enough Satanic influence around here without that.
And to anonymous above who has nothing better than to spam your blog... hey get your own blog you fetchin' moron.
That's the strongest language my moromon buddies are allowed to use.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz should introduce the Salt Lake Valley Newspaper Advertiser and Reader Liberation Act (SLVNARLA) to end the Newspaper Agency Corporation's duopolistic joint operating agreement.
Chaffetz a tool with a talent to produce publicity? Limbaugh a blatherer? Well …
One perspective seems to have gotten lost in the latest Republican hubbub, the Deseret News account of it, and the 50 or so rants published as comments: Each and every American owns the broadcast airwaves (at least theoretically), just as each and every American owns the national parks, national forests, BLM land and minerals beneath them.
The FCC, standing in for all Americans, still requires profit-making broadcasters to do their business based on the public’s “interest, convenience, and necessity” (at least theoretically) not on Rush Limbaugh’s, Rupert Murdoch’s, or Clear Channel radio’s. And in return they get a chunk of the scarce spectrum and don’t pay a penny for it.
Even though the Communications Act of 1934 enshrined the idea that broadcasters should work for the good of everyone, the law was gutted by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 with the help of the Clinton administration. What was sold as de-regulation was in fact a different kind of regulation that, lo and behold, benefited the likes of Clear Channel and Murdoch.
Utahns in the 3rd Congressional District should ask themselves whether Chaffetz is acting on their behalf as citizens or as a surrogate helping the bottom line of powerful media corporations and their wealthy investors.
Looks like Keshlear's comments disprove Warchol's thesis. Warchol claims the Democrats have no intention of restoring the so-called Fairness Doctrine yet the communications director of the Utah Democratic Party is arguing for it, without explicitly saying so, when he talks about the public owning the airwaves.
Of course, broadcasters PAY to use those frequencies.
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