Why Stripping Fox's Broadcast License Is a Terrible Idea

Plus: A listener inquires about the potential positive effects of ranked-choice voting reforms.

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Why Stripping Fox's Broadcast License Is a Terrible Idea

In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman are all back in action, and they tear into recent arguments by the Federal Communications Commission in favor of revoking Fox News' broadcast license. The editors also ponder the appointment of a special counsel in the ongoing Hunter Biden probe.

1:06: Special counsel appointed to investigate Hunter Biden

16:00: Misguided threats to yank Fox News' broadcast license

30:54: Weekly Listener Question

53:47: Age verification laws for online porn

Mentioned in this podcast:

"Hunter Biden and Donald Trump Should Both Have Jury Trials," by Clark Neily

"The Legally Authorized Charges Against Donald Trump and Hunter Biden Don't Tell Us What Justice Requires," by Jacob Sullum

"How Joe Biden Went from Middle-Class Joe to a Millionaire," by Caroline Hallemann

"Hunter Biden Shouldn't Go to Prison for Violating an Arbitrary Gun Law," by Jacob Sullum

"What the President Gets Wrong About Broadcast TV," by Jessica Rosenworcel

"How Deregulation Gave Us FM Radio, HBO, and the iPhone," by Nick Gillespie and Thomas W. Hazlett

"Celebrating the End of the Fairness Doctrine," by Nick Gillespie

"FCC Chair Preemptively Rubbishes Trump's Dumb Tweet About Challenging Media Licenses," by Matt Welch

"Child-proofing the World," by Nick Gillespie

"The New Campaign for a Sex-Free Internet," by Elizabeth Nolan Brown

"The EARN IT Act Is the New FOSTA," by Elizabeth Nolan Brown

"Small Porn Producers Will Be Hurt Most by New Age Verification Laws," by Jessica Stoya

"Childproofing the Internet," by Elizabeth Nolan Brown

"Social Media Age Requirements Are Anti-Free Speech," by Jeff Kosseff

"Ranked Choice Voting Worked in Alaska. Sarah Palin Came to CPAC To Complain About It." by Joe Lancaster

"Can ranked-choice voting save American democracy? We ask an expert," by Fredreka Schouten

"Reasons To Like Ranked‐Choice Voting," by Walter Olson

Send your questions to [e-mail]. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.

Today's sponsor:

• Sometimes we're faced with a crossroads in life, and we don't know which path to take. Maybe you're thinking about a career change or feeling like your relationship needs some TLC. Whatever it is, therapy can help you map out your future and trust yourself to find the way forward. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist, and switch therapists any time for no additional charge. Let therapy be your map, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/roundtable today to get 10 percent off your first month.

Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.

Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve

What are we consuming this week?

Nick Gillespie

• Hollywood Must Change -- But How?: Q&A with Rob Long

Katherine Mangu-Ward

• The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to a Radical Capitalism by David Friedman

Peter Suderman

• Dirty Dancing

Matt Welch

• Radio Woodstock

---

Comments

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman are all back in action, and they tear into recent arguments by the Federal Communications Commission in favor of revoking Fox News' broadcast license.

There would be no conservative opinion in the United States if it weren't for Fox News. That's a good enough reason to shut Fox down.

[Cyto]

There would be no right-of-center establishment opinion in the United States if it weren't for FOX news. And they sometimes let libertarian-adjacent people on.

Hangin's too good for 'em. Burnin's too good for 'em. They should be torn into itsy-bitsy pieces and buried alive!!!

youtube.com/watch?v=DVX4zGX3iWg

[Cyto]

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Make that clickable

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[Pear Satirical]

Is Fox even conservative anymore?

[Stuck in California]

Based on the overton window as viewed from these idiots inside the beltway? Probably.

I honestly have never watched Fox. I only know it pisses off the progressives. Conservative or not, it seems like it isn't on message for them.

[Public Entelectual]

If Lying is Fox's business model, what’s left for Newsmax & Real America’s Voice to do for a living?

[Mother's Lament]

Did you learn that on MSNBC too?

[raspberrydinners]

Believe it or not, MSNBC isn't straight propaganda and a good portion of people don't at all watch it.

Some people are just bright enough to know propaganda when they see it and call it out as such.

This is the same dumbass argument Republicans always fall into because they believe anyone that isn't one of them *must* be a Democrat or support XYZ because that's all they know- blind support for "their" side.

[Zeb]

Some people are just bright enough to know propaganda when they see it and call it out as such.

But very few are bright or honest enough to do so when they agree with the propaganda.

[Public Entelectual]

"and a good portion of people don’t at all watch it."
Including me- at a glance it seems as editorially predictable and almost as boring as the talking head in bad suit Evertrump channels.

[FF]

[FF]

HEY MODERATORS, FIX YOUR WEB SITE!
- emojis turn to question marks
- cant delete posts placed in wrong column
- no buttons for text formating

...i could probably find something else but this would be a good start!

[FF]

Is Fox even conservative anymore?

I know, right? It’s all “newspeak” anyway: the conservatives do not conserve anything and the liberals do not liberate anyone.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Speaking of which, cool short clip of James Lindsay telling an anecdote of an argument he had with Sam Harris, where Sam Harris postulated that it’s impossible to be authoritarian if you’re on the left.

Douglas Murray described this tendency in the chattering classes as the idea that you can go left and left and left and left and left and there's no gulag at the end of it.

[Minadin]

Yeah, I used to like Sam Harris a bit, but I think the election of Trump just broke the guy. He also recently made an argument along these lines:

“Imagine if everything was completely different, then things would be different. Imagine if covid had a 100% death rate and the vaccine was perfectly safe. RFK looks pretty stupid now”

'Well, if everything were contrary to reality, then my opponent would be wrong' is not the winning argument that he thinks it is.

https://twitter.com/ComicDaveSmith/status/1689415395751378944

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Oh yeah, I've been following the Sam Harrisification of Sam Harris. My estimation of his intelligence has gone down considerably. That argument he made was jaw-dropping.

Whenever my kids kick my ass at a videogame, I sometimes joke with them, using the technique the so-called "serious, reason-based" Sam Harris is using for COVID criticism: You know I would have beaten you if I were better at the game, right?

[Social Justice is neither]

After his statement that he wouldn't care if they found kids bodies at the Biden's if it meant getting rid of Trump he was fine with it I thought this was more par for the course awful from him.

[Stuck in California]

I have no idea who this guy is, but it sounds like he should be taken about as seriously as Yogi Berra, or some football color announcer. I think it was John Madden (I don’t watch football, I don’t know anyone else’s name) who was yelling all excited “If, if he’d’a just made into the end zone that’d be a touchdown!” when the family was watching TV at thanksgiving some years back.

No wonder my dad always watched sports with the volume down.

Anyway, this dude’s probably no less self-aware than any of the other shock-jocks that make up the media these days. You don’t go into journalism because you’re smart and because you’re not a sociopath.

[Mother's Lament]

Sam Harris has been bit by his own dog so many times now, but he's still blaming everything else for spooking it.

[EISTAU Gree-Vance]

Sam Harris = buttplug hero.

[Truthfulness]

Sam needs Jesus.

[SQRLSY One]

Jesus needs Sam-I-Am Harris!

[Liberty_Belle]

I don't care what your opinion is, so long as you aren't allowed to lie. Lying should be the thing that gets you cancelled / revoked / de-licensed or whatever. Truthful discourse, even when you disagree with it, should be not just be allowed ... but actively encouraged.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

So MSNBC and CNN should lose their licenses as well?

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Considering that one is Pravda and the other is Pravda-Lite...

[Liberty_Belle]

If you can prove they are abject liars in court like Fox News, then yes. No special treatment here. Burn it all down.

[Unicorn Abattoir]

Hey dumb fuck - there was no verdict in Fox v Dominion.

[Liberty_Belle]

No, just Rupert Murdoch admitting , under oath, that they endorsed false election claims.

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/28/1159819849/fox-news-dominion-voting-rupert-murdoch-2020-election-fraud

[Unicorn Abattoir]

So? No verdict. Nothing proven.

[SQRLSY One]

The Nuremberg trials never delivered a verdict on Adolf Hitler's guilt or innocence, either. Nothing proven!

[Unicorn Abattoir]

Was he on trial? Were charges served against him? Was he in the dock?

[SQRLSY One]

Hitler admitted his guilt by killing himself. Murdoch and Fox admitted their guilt by throwing in the towel on their trial, and paying up! What's the point in continuing to fight when you know you're in the wrong, and will lose, or have already lost?

[Unicorn Abattoir]

How dare you write an intelligible statement. This throws my whole world into upheaval.

[Zeb]

So now you believe everything Rupert Murdoch says?

[Elmer Fudd the CHUD 2: Steampunk Boogaloo]

I’m sick of these arguments. We’ve got too many Marxists. Time to get rid of them.

It’s us or them, and I prefer us. Plus we’re a thousand times stronger if we choose to hit back em masse against them.

[Cyto]

The fact that you would even bother typing that sentence tells everyone here that by your own metric, you should be cancelled.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

That's already been done. CNN has lost multiple lawsuits over lies and defamation. Soooo, your answer is "yes".

[Liberty_Belle]

Okay, yes.

[Pear Satirical]

Nicholas Sandmann says hi.

[CountmontyC]

Who gets to decide what is a lie and what is the truth?

[SQRLSY One]

My tribe is always right, and YOUR tribe is always WRONG!

[sarcasmic]

That's basically it. When facts are politicized there is no more truth.

[Cyto]

Another part of it is people have decreed opinions to be facts, and therefore true or false.

[SQRLSY One]

Vanilla tastes better than chocolate! More taste, less filling! These are FACTS!!!!

(Also, freshly fartilized HUMAN (butt ONLY human) egg smells have "souls" and "rights"!!!)

[sarcasmic]

What is fact and what is opinion? It's hard to tell.

[Zeb]

But news channels, including Fox, usually make it fairly clear which shows are news and which are opinion.
Then there is the question of whether having a guest on and letting them speak can be interpreted as any kind of endorsement of what they say.

[Minadin]

Herr Misek, naturally.

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

Who gets to decide what is a lie and what is the truth?
Rob Misek?

[Unicorn Abattoir]

So you're a Mizek sock.

[Elmer Fudd the CHUD 2: Steampunk Boogaloo]

Yeah, he want getting much traction being an unrepentant, anti semitic. Holocaust denying, neo Nazi.

[DesigNate]

Mmmmm, taste the liberty.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Also, I've never seen Dr. John Campbell get emotional over the COVID regime, but he's getting there.

1 in 35 myocardial events from the vaccine.

[JFree]

I followed him early on and appreciate that he provides solid info on sources. That Swiss study about the booster regimen of the Moderna vaccine could be a concern. It is about the booster round though – not the original two dose. Troponin levels can also rise after exercise which wouldn’t be unknown in 3% of a health-oriented population. Nor were those levels measured before the study to set an individual pre-booster baseline. Both of which would then also explain why they drop when the people are told not to exercise for awhile.

The authors of that study are not making the same claims about the study that Dr Campbell is. I completely agree with him about the informed consent stuff – regardless of this survey - which was crap.

[ElvisIsReal]

It is about the booster round though – not the original two dose.
-------
Whew! Good thing government wasn't relentlessly pushing booster doses and trying to mandate them wherever possible!

[JFree]

You really give a damn about govt doing all this as some propaganda/power game. But that’s it. Your only solution is for someone else to play the propaganda/power game instead of the one that did.

I give a damn that this study was Switzerland – not the US. The booster studies were Israel – not the US. Not one fucking thing in the US that we did was based on facts. Only on stupidity. Not the government and not any opposition to what the government did. Of course all that’s left is a fucking propaganda/power game. Duh.

[mad.casual]

I'm curious Jeff, is there a degree to which you won't lie to people, refute textbook physiology and clinical chemistry, about medications and treatments that would harm them or order to, IDK, make yourself feel better?

Because you're opening sentence is, pretty clearly, an "I don't mean to sound racist but..."-style disingenuous platitude and your fabrications about troponin are between superficially incorrect and utterly insane (they would require something like 30% of Switzerland to be actively running a marathon on any given day and, even then, wouldn't account for the effectively demonstrated dose-response).

So, without some better explanation, I can only interpret your motivation to be some socio- or even psychopathy. Is there a line you won't cross or should everyone always just assume you can and will lie, cheat, and steal to serve your own ends at any point in time?

[Zeb]

It has been really interesting to watch him shift to more and more skeptical of vaccines and government data/narratives. I feel like he's had some simmering anger beneath his calm presentation style for a while now.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

I don't know the thrust of the conversation because REASON DOESN'T PROVIDE TRANSCRIPTS, but no one should have to have a "license" to broadcast.

[TJJ2000]

^^^BINGO....

[Davy C]

You need one because if 25 people want to broadcast on channel 4 that's kind of a problem. The issue is when the government wants to revoke such a license because they don't like what is being said.

[JeremyR]

I agree in theory, but in reality there is only so much bandwidth on the airwaves

[Mother's Lament]

Fight it out with signal strength

[Zeb]

Isn't Fox News on cable anyway?

[FF]

PRECISELY. Fox News is carried by various cable & satellite networks, but does no actual broadcasting itself. In accordance with the first and tenth amendments, the FCC has no lawful (Article I) authority to permit or prohibit Fox News.

https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/

[sarcasmic]

The fact that it's a mere discussion instead of them screaming from the rooftops is proof that Reason hates the right and wants Fox to be shut down. If it was MSNBC you know there would be nonstop hyperbolic articles and lots of screaming, but no it's just Fox. Proof that everyone at Reason is in bed with the left. /Marshal

[JesseAz]

The ideas in this post do not represent rational libertarian thought. Instead it represents crybaby caterwauling of a neocon defending leftist. Please continue.

[A Cynical Asshole]

...recent arguments by the Federal Communications Commission in favor of revoking Fox News' broadcast license

Does anyone else have a feeling this was at least part of the point behind the progressive left's constant sperging out over "MiSiNfOrMaTiOn" the last few years? That and just censorship in general?

[Cyto]

They have openly stated their desire to shut down all dissent using the force of law at the federal level since the demise of the fairness doctrine.

When this change pushed all conservative thought off of the networks, an opportunity was opened in AM radio, which was basically dead and thus dirt cheap. Rush Limbaugh led the charge and created a way to go around the gatekeepers.

Of course, the left immediately began trying to bring back the fairness doctrine and issued demands that every station give them free time to balance out the likes of Limbaugh and Hannity.

Needless to say, they did not agree that reciprocity was needed on the networks where they held sway.

After about a decade of failing in this, the attacks on free speech in general and on the definition of truth and facts in the form of "fact check" organizations began, specifically with the intention of silencing Rush Limbaugh. They actually paid activists to listen to his show looking for transgressions against Truth and Decency.

The idiocy of the present didn't spring forth fully formed, despite all appearances. They have been at it for a long time.

[Stuck in California]

> They actually paid activists to listen to his show looking for transgressions

This was the earliest I ever heard of Media Matters. They'd have people listening to get ammunition, and occasionally find something someone said that they could make into a big media stink against the conservative they didn't like. They then figured out how to selectively report, so without context it would sound way worse.

Of course, that was small potatoes compared to what the propaganda organizations can do astroturfing the internets in these days if social media. But they were the trend setters.

[TJJ2000]

"They have been at it for a long time."
Yes.. Yes they have. Clear back when Cointelpro was discovered.

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