I think the Dems should insist that Print media, TV, Radio even Blogs. Everyone who talks about the news makes predictions and is not a Comedian should be paid based on the accuracy of their predictions. Its sad that Daily Show viewers are more educated on the issues than Fox News viewers. Regular Reporter pay therefore should be used to determine what news reporters get as well. I want the GOP to be forced to defend inaccuracy/outright lies by the Press as free speech, necessary for democracy!
I want us to fight that fight the bigger the fight on that issue if we can make that issue a big election issue will only do us GOOD:)
The GOP can argue Free Speech also includes the Right to lie. However the FCC regulates the public air waves for the public's interest. I can see no argument that Democracy is better served by lies on the Public Airwaves or inaccurate information and Predictions.
After all are we a Democracy that deserves and is better served by the truth?
Or are we an uneducated mob that must be manipulated by lies by our Elite Overlords?
In this paper, we report on the first-ever test of the accuracy of predictions in the media. We sampled the predictions of 26 individuals who wrote columns in major newspapers and/or appeared on the three major Sunday television news shows (Face the Nation, Meet the Press, and This Week) over a 16 month period from September 2007 to December 2008. Collectively, we called these pundits and politicians “prognosticators.” We evaluated each of the 472 predictions we recorded, testing its accuracy.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
(Every idea expressed in this diary was inspired by GeoMoo's Great Diary)
I can't believe that nobody has thought of this before we bitch about the Media plenty but the people who did this study should be commended for doing something about it. Its up to us to take the conclusions this study has made and take the next logical step and push for the Media to be paid based on Merit, based on accuracy.
Surely the GOP can get behind performance based reviews of news commenters and reporters and the FCC can say that all current media contracts with media personalities are invalid and must now be based upon past accuracy which can be reviewed yearly.
The Public good is better served by promoting the truth over what advertisers and politicians want to hear.
The Free Market only works if consumers and voters have access to accurate information.
Would we have had a bank bailout if everyone had accurate business news? The temptation to lie to make money is something the free market has an interest in regulating.
The bank bailout has shown what happens when the Elite who think that we are an uneducated mob that must be lied to starts to believe their own lies.
Suppose we implement this idea what does this mean for us?
Kos could charge ad rates based on size the size of his audience and the accuracy of his front page. He would have to pay some people more who have a real good record of accurate predictions as oppose to those who report the news with comments and handling that fair I admit might be a problem but its a problem I am sure can be solved.
Potentially Kos could charge more than Drudge or even Rush.
Hmmm? Actually Drudge and Rush might actually have to pay the FCC and/or their advertisers.