Wednesday, July 6, 2022

It's time for some Common Sense Media Control laws

So the Highland Park shooter recorded rap songs about doing a mass shooting.  Gosh, why would he rap about that?  Could it be all the media coverage about mass shootings?  Could he be motivated by the chance to be famous?

Every time there's a mass shooting, the media carpet bombs the airwaves with coverage.  It's easy to see why they do so - if it bleeds, it leads and all that.  It's about ratings, which means that they're in it for the money.

The Supreme Court has been clear that commercial speech has less First Amendment protection than political speech.  And we're constantly reminded by the liberals in every Second Amendment case that "no right is absolute".  Well, allrightee then.

It's high time to restrict the ability of the media to report on mass shooting events, because they are clearly encouraging this sort of behavior.  Some Common Sense restrictions seem to be pas due here.  For example:

  • Waiting periods before publishing, to discourage "copy cat" killers.  A 1 or 2 week wait will allow information to get out to the public but will provide a "cooling off" period.
  • A one story a month limit on stories will allow publishing the story to the public but will prevent the saturation of the airwaves that leads to copy cat events.  I mean, nobody needs an arsenal 24x7 never ending wave of stories.
  • Licensing of news media, to include showing of "Good and Substantial" reason for publishing.
I could go on, but you get the idea.  I mean, no right is absolute - especially when it's not political speech but rather commercial speech.

Feel free to leave your suggestions for Common Sense Media Control laws in the comments.

6 comments:

  1. Purchasing restrictions:
    No one may purchase more than one newspaper or news magazine per month.
    An excise tax of $100 per word on all for-profit news websites and news broadcasts.
    A ten-word limit on all news stories.
    All newspapers have to be printed using individual typesetting presses. No one needs presses that can distribute thousands of lies per minute.
    A total ban on all foreign press imports.
    All news stories must be composed on typewriters that require loading a single sheet of paper at a time.
    All journalists must undergo a background check, psychological examination, and apply for a license, which may take six months to a year to be granted. They must further carry libel liability insurance of at least $1M, and undergo a training course supervised by non-journalists, to make sure they can report the news accurately and safely, with minimum qualification scores required. This license must be renewed every three to five years, at a gradually increasing price, on top of administration costs.
    A ten-day cooling-off period before any news story is published. This includes weather, sports, and traffic.
    Severe limits on any news that does not serve a sporting purpose.
    No one can report anywhere outside their home or office. Journalism openly in public to be severely restricted.
    Anyone reporting while intoxicated/under the influence gets an additional five year mandatory criminal penalty applied to any libel judgement.
    Anyone who allows a child to report or read news, except supervised sporting events, gets one year in state prison.

    That's just for openers.

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  2. The media can no longer play hide-the-salami with 'anonymous sources'. They need to keep records on how they got their information and from who, and who was involved in making the decision to publish it.

    We should go after the lawyers and judiciary too. If they are going to impose civilian disarmament, they should personally be liable for anyone hurt or killed as a result.

    In the real world though, blaming the media for mass murderers is is no different from blaming guns. Neither will solve the problem - which is, namely, young men that have not been raised right. These young men are mostly raised by single mothers, and were raised by women with no male role models to work with. Letting queers and trannies go after our kids isn't going to help either....

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  3. Aren't these 'remedies' called shooting the messenger?

    Dale

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  4. Slippery slope. Don't go there.

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  5. Shoot the messenger. Sumbitch had it coming.

    ReplyDelete

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