The FCC, The Media, And The War

In a TomPaine.com commentary, Institute for Public Accuracy's Sam Husseini warns of the chilling effect the Federal Communications Commission, the agency that controls broadcast licenses, could have on reporting U.S. military actions. Husseini recalls the Pentagon Papers, an internal report on Vietnam that few media outlets would touch for fear of drawing expensive and threatening FCC investigations. With the FCC headed by Bush appointee Michael Powell, son of Secretary of State Colin Powell, Husseini hopes, "the media managers won't put their business plans and pleasing the FCC before seriously covering -- and questioning -- the Administration's war."