What should be done about TV and Radio stations that have already endangered Americans by calling Coronavirus a hoax, claiming that it was simply like the flu, or the many other variations of these themes? The FCC licenses of such TV and Radio stations should not be renewed where such hoaxes and lies cause illness and death. Shouldn’t we start taking the FCC standards seriously? FOX “News” should be concerned. Here is the FCC standard for denying a license renewal.
Broadcast Journalism
Introduction. As noted above, in light of the fundamental importance of the free flow of information to our democracy, the First Amendment and the Communications Act bar the FCC from telling station licensees how to select material for news programs or prohibiting the broadcast of an opinion on any subject. We also do not review anyone’s qualifications to gather, edit, announce, or comment on the news. These decisions are the station licensee’s responsibility. Nevertheless, there are two issues related to broadcast journalism that are subject to Commission regulation: hoaxes and news distortion.
Hoaxes. The broadcast by a station of false information concerning a crime or catastrophe violates the FCC’s rules if:
The station licensee knew that the information was false;
Broadcasting the false information directly causes substantial public harm; and It was foreseeable that broadcasting the false information would cause such harm.
In this context, a “crime” is an act or omission that makes the offender subject to criminal punishment by law, and a “catastrophe” is a disaster or an imminent disaster involving violent or sudden events affecting the public. The broadcast must cause direct and actual damage to property or to the health or safety of the general public, or diversion of law enforcement or other public health and safety authorities from their duties, and the public harm must begin immediately. If a station airs a disclaimer before the broadcast that clearly characterizes the program as fiction and the disclaimer is presented in a reasonable manner under the circumstances, the program is presumed not to pose foreseeable public harm.
News Distortion. The Commission often receives complaints concerning broadcast journalism, such as allegations that stations have aired inaccurate or one-sided news reports or comments, covered stories inadequately, or overly dramatized the events that they cover. For the reasons noted previously, the Commission generally will not intervene in these cases because it would be inconsistent with the First Amendment to replace the journalistic judgment of licensees with our own. However, as public trustees, broadcast licensees may not intentionally distort the news. The FCC has stated that “rigging or slanting the news is a most heinous act against the public interest.” The Commission will investigate a station for news distortion if it receives documented evidence of rigging or slanting, such as testimony or other documentation, from individuals with direct personal knowledge that a licensee or its management engaged in the intentional falsification of the news. Of particular concern would be evidence of the direction to employees from station management to falsify the news. However, absent such a compelling showing, the Commission will not intervene.”
I just found this. The misinformation and lies turned out to be as much with the Corporate Media and Big Tech as Fox. I was banned from multiple platforms for contradicting the WHO, which declared that the novel coronavirus was not human-to-human transmissible. Not allowed, because it upset China. Every other coronavirus infects the respiratory system and is human-human transmissible, we have to assume that this one is also. Taiwan shut its border on January 1, and nobody noticed except me and a couple of other former intel guys. The Taiwanese knew it was contagious. How contagious turned out to be something awful.
Then came the famous model of case fatality rate. It will be 3.5%!!! We’ll lose 200 million people!!! No, we won’t. I put together a quick and dirty predictive model showing that if we used data from known coronavirus pandemics, it should be at most 0.35%. I lost many friends who still won’t speak to me.
The “social distancing” information was also dead wrong. It was based on late 1800s research by a German bacteriologist, who got images of the vapor cloud, extending two meters. But, this wasn’t a bacteria, it was a virus, which is far smaller and lighter. After World War II we developed imaging capability to capture the complete vapor cloud, which extended eight meters, or twenty-six feet, not six feet. And we learned that the vapor cloud could remain airborne for three or more hours. Accused of more misinformation.
Then there’s the origin of the virus. I knew that as of 2010 the Wuhan Institute of Virology had been the Chinese military’s primary center for biowarfare research. The wet market was always a diversion. We had photographs of the P4 Lab with open refrigeration units unattended, something a high school lab knows not to do. I’m astounded anybody still spoke to me; most didn’t.
Fauci lied repeatedly to hide his involvement in funding the research creating the virus, and to protect his allies in China and WHO. Nancy Pelosi, rather than actually looking at data, famously invited everyone down to Chinatown to show that they’re not racists like that horrid Donald Trump who kept trying to call it a China Virus, and for no reason at all cut off air travel to China. How terrible of him!
Then I committed the ultimate sin. I wrote that there was no need for a lock down, we needed to put all effort into protecting old people and fat people and leave everybody else alone until we knew more. I was a died-in-the-wool Trumpist, endangering everybody’s lives!!! No, I wasn’t. The lock downs were political, not medical, and were used to reward supporters and punish opponents.
I’m still getting major pushback when I write that I would not recommend that anyone under twenty, or pregnant, or immune-compromised, or with an autoimmune disorder, be given a vaccine by anyone other than a physician. The risk of hospitalization (the number we should be looking at, not infections) for someone under 20 is lower than the risk of a major adverse reaction to the vaccine. I’m sorry, your attack on Fox News in this case seems unjustified and partisan. I’d go after NBC stations first.
Q: What the difference between a conspiracy theory and the Truth?
A: About 3 to 9 months
Also:
Q: What do you get when you mix science with politics?
A: Politics
Q: What do you get when you mix science with politics?
A: Politics