To what extent should the govrnment have over the media ( if any )?

Question

what would be some Pros and Cons to this topic?

Answer 1

The only concern the government should address is moral content of programming available or likely to be viewed by children.

In a free society there should be no censorship of any media regarding content or political viewpoints. We are, however, at the mercy of rich and powerful men who own these stations and newspapers, so we know we can't believe everything we hear or read. Some lean to the left, and others lean to the right.

Answer 2

No control as defined in the Constitution if you haven't read it!


"Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." US Constitution.

They should not be able to blatantly lie like Fox, but then they aren't really the media!

Limitations have been placed on the media during combat and where they can and can't go. They have also at times been told not to write a story in the interest of National Security, but those should be few and far between.

They are the 4th Estate!. They are the only thing that keeps politicians at least somewhat honest!

I agree with most that the media is controlled by the few, like Rupert Murdock and a few others. There was a law against this not long ago, but it was slowly deregulated and now back into the hands of a few! Not right, or good!

Answer 3

The government should have absolutely no control over any media. Regretably, this is not the case in the U.S. anymore.

A handfull of large corporations own almost all of the news outlets in America today. Thanks to Dutch Reagan's deregulating the media laws, now a conglomerate can control as many forms of news reporting as they can afford to buy.

Sounds real good on the surface, but with the impact and financial strength of our American Military Industrial Complex, the opinions of the American people can be (and are) manipulated by the scripts that are provided for the "talking heads" to read to us.

The government control of our media has been in place for over 20 years now and just look at the mess our country is in. We are divided pretty much, into two distinct groups and closer to another civil war than our government wants us to know.

Answer 4

The government should not have any control over any of our media. If the government starts to control the media, then the media will be reporting exactly what the government wants it to. Government controlled media is what countries like Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, etc. have. I don't care for how our media reports the news, as I feel it has a slant to it. But it is far superior to the media of countries where the government controls it.

Answer 5

It's time for the FCC and/or the Justice Dept. to break up the media monopolies as they did to AT&T and very nearly to Microsoft. Any commie will warn you that capitalism destroys itself by ultimately becoming a group of monopolies that control everything. Fortunately, we know that, and break up monopolies or regulate them heavily. It was brilliant of the aristocracy to realize they could control information in this country by buying up all of the most popular media outlets. Is the press free if it's controlled by a handful of partisans? Plenty of justification here for forcing the media moguls to sell off their interests to a diverse cross section of investors.

Answer 6

As little as possible. I think there should be laws to prevent monopolies of media outlets, since a single owner/corporation controlling most or all communication outlets is as harmful to a free society as government control of communication is.

Answer 7

None, also...no corporation should be allowed to own more than 1 media outlet, also..no mega corp should be allowed to own more than 2 corporations that own a media outlet.

I am tired of the news being basically propaganda..from (fill in the blank).

I kinda want some news in my news..thank you

Answer 8

Our Constitution protects us all! Too bad the media is at free will to print whatever they wish! News makes money and it is even more important than our national security!

Look at Bush! The terrorists who have killed our citizens in 9/11 have more rights than we do! At least he has tried to make a difference in keeping them other countries under lock and key. Our own court system according to our Constitution as to abide by the rules. The makers of the Constitution did not know that terrorists some day were going to not play by our rules but by NO RULES!

Americans do not know how to play by their system. I say all is fair in love and war! We have to adapt to new rules of war if we as a nation will survive as well as our friends and enemies in the world today!

Answer 9

None. That's their free speech priviledge. But, when the media tells important and classified information that's when the government needs to get in. Free Speech only goes so far. When it comes to the safety of our country that's on stake, that's when they need to shut up.

Answer 10

well,right now the lib dems control about 85% of the editorial content of all news outlets and they have a large following that dotes on every word and believes what they read/hear...it should be obvious that any control sways the ignorant public to believe that anything is ok as long as the media says it is...this is dangerous...look at how people actually believe that liberalism is a good thing and that stars in gollywood are smart people and their opinions should count as something good...jeeeze,get a grip