By: Peter Barry Chowka
In a shocking development in the ongoing censorship debate, two influential Democrat members of the House of Representatives have taken the first steps to challenge the continued availability of conservative channels Newsmax, OANN, and Fox News on mainstream cable, satellite, and streaming television platforms. Multichannel News reported on the story yesterday in an article titled “House Dems Pressure Distributors to Justify Carrying Fox News, Others.”
California Democrats Reps. Anna Eshoo and Jerry McNerney have written to a dozen cable, satellite and streaming companies calling on them to better combat disinformation — which they principally identify as Fox, Newsmax and One America News Network (OANN) — and grilling them on what they plan to do about it.
Among other things, the letter to the companies by Eshoo and McNerney attacked the three conservative news channels as “misinformation rumor mills and conspiracy theory hotbeds that produce content that leads to real harm.”
The Democrats’ February 22 letter to Comcast, AT&T, Dish, Verizon, Roku, and the seven other companies demanded that they respond to a laundry list of seven intrusive and intimidating questions:
- What moral or ethical principles (including those related to journalistic integrity, violence, medical information, and public health) do you apply in deciding which channels to carry or when to take adverse actions against a channel?
- Do you require, through contracts or otherwise, that the channels you carry abide by any content guidelines? If so, please provide a copy of the guidelines.
- How many of your subscribers tuned in to Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN on [Fill in the company’s distribution platforms] for each of the four weeks preceding the Nov. 3, 2020 elections and the Jan. 6, 2021 attacks on the Capitol? Please specify the number of subscribers that tuned in to each channel.
- What steps did you take prior to, on, and following the Nov. 3, 2020 elections and the Jan. 6, 2021 attacks to monitor, respond to, and reduce the spread of disinformation, including encouragement or incitement of violence by channels your company disseminates to millions of Americans? Please describe each step that you took and when it was taken.
- Have you taken any adverse actions against a channel, including Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN, for using your platform to disseminate disinformation related directly or indirectly to the Nov. 3, 2020 elections, the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection, or COVID-19 misinformation? If yes, please describe each action, when it was taken, and the parties involved.
- Have you ever taken any actions against a channel for using your platform to disseminate any disinformation? If yes, please describe each action and when it was taken.
- Are you planning to continue carrying Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN [fill in the platform] on TV both now and beyond any contract renewal date? If so, why?
The questions came two days before a hearing on Wednesday before the powerful House Committee on Energy & Commerce, chaired by Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), titled “Fanning the Flames: Disinformation and Extremism in the Media.” Pallone has represented his New Jersey district in the House since 1993. Reps. Eshoo (who, like Pallone, was also first elected to Congress in 1992) and McNerney (who was re-elected to his eighth term in the House in 2020) are both members of the House committee and will be participating in the hearing.
The hearing, scheduled to start at 12:30 P.M. E.T., will be virtual, using Cisco WebEx video technology, and it will be live-streamed at the committee’s site. Previous congressional inquiries have targeted social media, but this is the first time that major television outlets, including Fox News (which is considered mainstream media and is available to 100% of television viewers around the country), have found themselves directly in the cross hairs of politicians on Capitol Hill.
(American Thinker)
