The Federal Communications Commission’s announcement, and subsequent cancellation, of a study on the process that newsrooms use in selecting story coverage is yet another alarming example of the chilling erosion of any distinction between government and society.
While the federal government has made increasingly outrageous forays into the private sector, and this particular idea was no less egregious than the NSA’s blanket data collection or the IRS’ targeting of non-profits aligned with a particular political ideology, it’s hardly surprising that the FCC thought it had the power to monitor newsrooms.
This is, after all, the same agency that successfully regulated the content of private radio channels, purportedly in the name of “fairness,” until only an alarmingly few years ago. This most recent proposed initiative only shifted the focus to a different medium.
This most recent instance is hardly the only case of a federal agency, at the behest of government officials, heading an expedition into the previously uncharted territories of private business with increasing intrepidity.
Though stymied by populist outrage this time, this phenomenon will only continue to grow because it is merely the symptom of a much deeper and insidious problem — a radical interpretation of “fairness” that has crept into the federal prerogative.
Once upon a time, it was generally understood that the only way in which fairness entered into the national lexicon was through equal application of what federal laws were necessary to ensure the un-prevaricated protection of individual rights.
This, truly, is fairness. Success then relies on personal discretion and drive, as it should, since, depending upon the goals, there are innumerable ways of defining what ultimate attainment looks like.
But, those who supposedly know better have decided that this simply isn’t doing enough to insure success for those who are victims of a system that, through free enterprise, promotes only the truly meritorious. Enter fairness-driven legislation and initiatives, most recently actualized in the FCC’s monitoring of press coverage “balance.”
No longer is government blind. Now, it is a sentient being, motivated by some bizarre altruism that holds the nebulously defined “good” of a supposedly disenfranchised few above everyone else. Now, need, is suddenly a desirable goal of legislation. Now, those whom it decides are the oppressors of the voiceless are criminal and need to be watched.
In “Common Sense,” Thomas Paine wrote, “Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices.”
This is supposed to be a compelling reason to put high, unscalable walls between the two. Society is the realm of volition, wherein men can easily cast off those associations they find to be onerous or unsatisfactory. Government, on the other hand, is ironclad and its oppressiveness is not so easily shaken.
It is because of this that most issues are left to the invisible hand of the market. Then, though aggressions may occur against some party or another, they may be sorted out naturally. Only when these become outrageously assailable do they become an issue for government redress. Even then, local levels are sought as arbiters first.
This works because there is no real definition of fairness. There is no prototypical human being and therefore no single function or end that is somehow more innately virtuous than another. Society needs brain surgeons, and it also needs garbage collectors.
To protect the interests of both of these professionals, the government must make no judgments regarding their aims. When it does, the FCC is able to rationalize an Orwellian state in which newsrooms are subject to surveillance to make sure they serve the interests of their consumers. Yet, any quasi-rational person could point out that only the consumers are capable of knowing their interests.
The deleterious effect this has on society is easily demonstrable. Reporters Without Borders recently released their press freedom index, and out of the 180 countries, the United States fell to 46, behind such paragons of independent journalism as Estonia and Botswana. That’s a 14-spot drop from last year.
And, for a country that enshrined freedom of speech in a dominant spot in its governing document, it’s a travesty and one that will only continue to wreak havoc on society.