Why the FCC Should Stay Away From Politics

Last week, Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr suggested Jimmy Kimmel should be suspended for comments he made on air about Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin, saying, “we can do this the easy way or the hard way.”

Many across the political spectrum, including Republican senators David McCormick, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz, condemned Carr’s remarks, “and rightly so,” Judge Glock writes. “The government has no place in policing programming.”

But it does have a long history of targeting opponents in the name of fairness. Shortly after President Franklin Roosevelt created the FCC, he directed the commission’s chair to act against New Deal critics, and in 1941, a Boston radio station promised to silence foes in exchange for staying on the air.

Eight years later, the FCC created the Fairness Doctrine, which required broadcasters to present both sides of controversial topics. But the rule was applied almost exclusively to the Right. That would likely be the case today, too, if the commission were to create a modern fairness rule, Glock argues.

Read his take.

President Trump signed an executive order earlier this summer to prioritize funding for states that crack down on drugs and use involuntary treatment for mental illness.

This is a positive step, Paul Webster and Devon Kurtz argue, as state and local governments can now experiment with other ways of addressing addiction and homelessness. “They can strike a balance between approaches that include creating places for people to go, treating those who must be compelled to accept treatment, and enforcing camping bans, drug-free homeless zones, and diversion programs to reduce the number of people living on the streets,” they write.

Many point to expanded childcare and parental leave as solutions for declining birth rates in the West. But countries like Finland and Sweden already maintain generous social-safety nets and still have lower birth rates than the U.S.

To boost fertility, Josh Appel argues, we have to address the cultural narratives that demean family life. “The generation that came of age after [World War II] often viewed family not as the foundation of society but as a potential obstacle to personal fulfillment,” he writes.

That feeling persists. A poll released this month found that men and women between the ages of 18 to 29 consider their careers, financial independence, and having enough money to be their top three priorities. None of those, of course, explicitly involves having children.

Read more here.  

What are the consequences of a culture that undermines masculinity? Heather Mac Donald, Daniel Di Martino, and Rafael Mangual examine the complex forces fueling rising tensions in America. They discuss the recent attack on an ICE facility in Dallas, the cultural crisis of masculinity, the importance of fatherhood, and the need for positive male role models. Drawing on the legacy of figures like Charlie Kirk, they reflect on why it’s crucial to revive values like courage, heroism, and personal responsibility. 

“When I worked in drug counseling for a short time in 1987, we learned that it’s wrong to enable addiction. It ultimately harms the addict.

Now, politicians and ‘nonprofits’ (har har) both encourage and enable addiction. With very predictable outcomes. It’s neither kind nor compassionate to enable drug and alcohol addiction, but that’s what ‘progressives’ do.”

Photo credit: John Lamparski / Stringer / Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images