The Obama administration, under the auspices of the Federal Trade Commission has announced how it intends to "reinvent journalism". Which is to turn it from a system with marginal use for facts into a government run media with absolutely zero use for facts. Washington Examiner Mark Tapscott covers it in good detail.
My first thought is "what does the FTC have to do with journalism?", but more to the point, this thing is unconstitutional on its face. What can any part of the Fed.gov have to do with journalism? "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press..." It's one of a few things the Bill of Rights says they can't mess with, so how can it possibly be constitutional? Well, that's what I think, but I thought McCain-Feingold was unconstitutional too. Still don't see how the Supremes could say it's not.
There's a story that the old USSR had two official news sources, Pravda (truth) and Izvestia (News). The running joke was that "In Izvestia there is no Pravda. In Pravda there is no Izvestia". Think it will be any different when any administration owns the news media here?
Add this to their efforts to regulate/take over the internet through Net Neutrality laws that will destroy the private sector's ability to build-in infrastructure, and you have thorough controls over everything you read or see. Let's see, if that financial bill is passed, it's total visibility over your financial actions. Got health care, which can regulate every aspect of your life. Smart grid to make sure you don't run too much electricity; can't run the heater over 62 this winter; so we can reduce our carbon footprint.
Everything adds up to a totalitarian state that makes 1984 look like a picnic.
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