Short Quiz – The US Gov’s 1987 Abolition of the Media “Fairness Doctrine” & The Abolition’s Implications for Free Speech

[johnkarls]

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Part A – The Power of Film

1. Have we all witnessed instances in which friends/acquaintances have alleged “facts” and, when challenged, have cited a movie?

2. Indeed, didn’t we have occasion just this past month to consider the fact that Otto Preminger’s 1960 movie “Exodus” starring Paul Newman was a hoax?

3. And didn’t we conclude that the 1960 movie “Exodus” helps to fuel the BIG PALESTINIAN LIE that in 1948 the United Nations stole land from Palestinians and gave it to the Jewish survivors of Hitler’s Holocaust?

4. Isn’t Exhibit 2 in our indictment of the movie industry the 1979 movie “The China Syndrome” starring Jane Fonda?

5. Hasn’t Jane Fonda’s “The China Syndrome” convinced the American public that nuclear power is unsafe and, accordingly, Global Warming (aka Climate Change) can only be fought with uneconomic energy sources such as wind/solar?

6. Isn’t it true that nuclear-fission in general, and thorium-fission in particular, are much safer than wind/solar/whatever? In addition to being cheaper than fossil fuels so that it would not be necessary to invade China et al. to force them to curtail their carbon emissions?

7. Indeed, haven’t we marveled on numerous occasions that the earth is the world’s largest thorium reactor which is why (A) the center of the earth is 7,000 degrees which is hotter than the surface of the sun, and (B) why any rupture in the earth’s thin crust causes molten lava to spew forth?

8. Wasn’t thorium fission proved feasible in the 1960’s when the U.S. National Nuclear-Research Laboratory at Oak Ridge TN conducted a successful 18-month continuous demonstration project comprising a thorium-fueled nuclear reactor? And didn’t President Nixon cause the nation to turn away from thorium (and toward uranium and plutonium) because thorium is incapable of exploding or being utilized to produce nuclear weapons?

9. And didn’t we catalogue all of the many other advantages of thorium fission (such as virtually all of India’s “sand” beaches comprising thorium) in our many campaigns to national/world leaders? As well as U.S. Presidential Debate Moderators in our unsuccessful attempts to induce them to raise the issue?

10. BTW, doesn’t the obstinance of the Media’s Debate Moderators demonstrate how difficult/impossible it is to deal with the UNHOLY ALLIANCE of Hollywood and the Mainstream Media?

11. Couldn’t Exhibit 3 in our indictment of the movie industry be Aaron Sorkin’s alleged documentary of 2020 entitled “The Trial of the Chicago 7” dealing with the 1969 prosecution of the “ring leaders” behind the anti-war protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago?

12. Despite being labeled a “documentary,” isn’t it true that it is riddled with numerous lies both large and small???

13. And despite being riddled with numerous important lies, wasn’t it hyped by the Media to such an extent that it received six Oscar nominations including Best Picture???

14. Did Yours Truly have a front-row seat to this travesty because –

(A) Tom Hayden (one of the Chicago 7 and Jane Fonda’s husband 1973-1990) was the Editor of the U/Mich student newspaper my freshman year there when we were well acquainted because I was immersed in providing extra-curricular activities for our 1900 foreign students from 93 foreign countries?

(B) The anti-war protests were so pervasive because America still had a military draft which meant that the children of the elites were being sent to Vietnam (which was remedied soon thereafter by making the US Military an all-volunteer force which, in turn, only meant that our inner-city children were being forced to volunteer by their poverty)?

(C) Yours Truly, in 2020, was participating in the “movie group” of a massive Salt Lake City organization that focused of their own accord on “The Trial of the Chicago 7” and, each time Yours Truly documented one of its important lies, nobody would believe me?


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Part B – The Power of Film Compared to the Power of the Other Performing/Fine Arts

1. Are the six insights provided by Prof. Suber’s “The Power of Film” applicable to other of the performing/fine arts?

2. And yes, isn’t it easy to point to Broadway because so many movies over the years have been adaptations of Broadway plays/musicals?

3. But isn’t it also true that so many stories from literature possess the same power as memorable movies? But why should this be surprising since many (if not most) movies are based on books that have been popular?

4. Indeed, isn’t it true that most operas are “tragic operas” (vs. “comic operas”) and there are zillions of “tragic operas” that have remained in the classic repertoire for precisely the same reasons as Prof. Suber offers for memorable movies?

5. And, in turn, aren’t quite a few of the most popular operas – such as Otello by Joe Green (aka Giuseppe Verdi) – based on tales of The Great Bard himself (William Shakespeare)?

6. And appreciating the fusion of the performing arts with the fine arts, how many of us stop to think about the commonly-used phrase “writing on the wall”?

7. But isn’t the origin of this phrase the Jewish Bible (aka Christian “Old Testament”)? Specifically, Daniel Chapter 5?

8. And doesn’t the Bible describe the horror of “Belshazzar’s Feast” whose principal character, Belshazzar, was the ruler of Babylon?

9. Because it wasn’t mere “writing on the wall” but rather A DISEMBODIED HAND THAT WAS WRITING ON THE WALL a chilling warning “God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it; Thou art weighed in the balances, and found wanting; The kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians”?

10. Is the horror of the disembodied hand captured in a famous painting by Rembrandt that hangs in London’s National Gallery?

11. Was it also the focus of an oratorio by George Frideric Handel?

12. And more recently a cantata by the English composer William Walton which was first performed at the Leeds Festival 10/8/1931 with the London Symphony Orchestra?

13. So hasn’t Prof. Suber actually invited us to look at one dimension of a Rubik’s Cube?


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Part C - The US Gov’s 1987 Abolition of the Media “Fairness Doctrine” & The Abolition’s Implications for Free Speech

1. Since movies and the Mainstream Media have such power to shape and effectively censor Free Speech, why did the US Gov abolish the Media “Fairness Doctrine” in 1987?

2. Had the Fairness Doctrine been since 1949 a bulwark of the Federal Communication Commission’s regulations requiring broadcasters to provide adequate coverage of public issues AND TO ENSURE THAT SUCH COVERAGE FAIRLY REPRESENTED OPPOSING VIEWS???

3. Surprise, surprise – was the Fairness Doctrine abolished in 1987???

4. Is the Fairness Doctrine often confused with the “Equal Time Rule” of 47 U.S. Code Sec. 315 which requires American radio and broadcast stations to provide equal access to competing political candidates?

5. Even though the “Equal Time Rule” is still on the books, has it been gutted by exceptions?

6. In ending his Presidential Campaign on 8/23/2024, did Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blast THE FAILURE OF THE “EQUAL TIME RULE” by saying –

"Over the course of more than a year … the DNC-aligned mainstream media networks maintained a near-perfect embargo on interviews with me. During his 10-month presidential campaign in 1992, Ross Perot gave 34 interviews on mainstream networks. In contrast, during the 16 months since I declared, ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, and CNN combined gave only two live interviews [with] me. Those networks instead ran a continuous deluge of hit pieces with inaccurate, often vile pejoratives and defamatory smears. Some of those same networks colluded with the DNC to keep me off the debate stage."

7. Did this Sec. C stray too far afield from Prof. Suber’s “The Power of Film”? Or is the deviation which began in Q-10 of Sec. A justified?