Friday, February 20, 2009

MN Town Hall Meeting, Screening Obama,

Hi all,

 

The MN House is holding a town hall meeting (seeking commentary on the state budget) in Minneapolis on the same date as our Full Committee meeting. It is important that the Republican perspective is heard on this. I am therefore delaying the start time of our meeting until 8:00 PM to allow members to attend the town meeting.

Here is the date and time information on the town hall meeting:

Tuesday, February 24th - 6:00 p.m.

Minneapolis Park Board

2117 West River Road

 

http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/budgettownhallmeetings.asp

 

Thank you,

 

Carleton Crawford

5th Congressional District Chair

 



DOCTRINE AIR DEMOCRACY

American Spectator Screening Obama by the Prowler

Senior FCC staff working for acting Federal Communications Commissioner Michael Copps held meetings last week with policy and legislative advisers to House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman to discuss ways the committee can create openings for the FCC to put in place a form of the "Fairness Doctrine" without actually calling it such.

Waxman is also interested, say sources, in looking at how the Internet is being used for content and free speech purposes. "It's all about diversity in media," says a House Energy staffer, familiar with the meetings. "Does one radio station or one station group control four of the five most powerful outlets in one community? Do four stations in one region carry Rush Limbaugh, and nothing else during the same time slot? Does one heavily trafficked Internet site present one side of an issue and not link to sites that present alternative views? These are some of the questions the chairman is thinking about right now, and we are going to have an FCC that will finally have the people in place to answer them."

Copps will remain acting chairman of the FCC until President Obama's nominee, Julius Genachowski, is confirmed, and Copps has been told by the White House not create "problems" for the incoming chairman by committing to issues or policy development before the Obama pick arrives.

But Copps has been a supporter of putting in place policies that would allow the federal government to have greater oversight over the content that TV and radio stations broadcast to the public, and both the FCC and Waxman are looking to licensing and renewal of licensing as a means of enforcing "Fairness Doctrine" type policies without actually using the hot-button term "Fairness Doctrine."

One idea Waxman's committee staff is looking at is a congressionally mandated policy that would require all TV and radio stations to have in place "advisory boards" that would act as watchdogs to ensure "community needs and opinions" are given fair treatment. Reports from those advisory boards would be used for license renewals and summaries would be reviewed at least annually by FCC staff.










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