From the Chico Enterprise-Record:
Wildflower students linked to graffiti in Bidwell Park
Recent graffiti in Bidwell Park was at the hands of students from a Chico charter school as part of a lesson on civic engagement and activism.
Seventh- and eighth-graders at Wildflower Open Classroom on Cohasset Road have been involved with an anti-fracking campaign and are among those planning to take part in a rally in Oakland on Saturday. On Monday, students and some staff members vandalized parts of lower park with anti-fracking messages and advertisements for the weekend rally.
School site director Tom Hicks said Thursday that the vandalism was an unfortunate error in judgment related to the middle school students’ studies in civic engagement and activism. Earlier in the year, they selected fracking as a topic and became engaged with the issue.
After research into ways to put their ideas in motion, students decided to use sidewalk chalk and stencils to get their message out, including making their own biodegradable chalk. The activity in the park took place after school Monday with students and staff.
“Unfortunately there was some miscommunication and then error in judgment on our behalf by doing this in the park,” Hicks said. “At this point we are working with the parks department to rectify the situation and making every effort to turn this into a learning experience for everybody involved.”
…
On the students’ Facebook page, they explain they have decided to take a stand against fracking. They are helping Frack-Free Butte County organize a bus to the March for Real Climate Leadership and raise awareness through a community art project and outreach.
The March for Real Climate Leadership is expected to attract thousands of people to Oakland, where participants will call on Gov. Jerry Brown to ban fracking and push for 100 percent renewable energy. A bus of local people is leaving from Butte College at 7 a.m.
The whole story is here: http://www.chicoer.com/general-news/20150205/wildflower-students-linked-to-graffiti-in-bidwell-park
I don’t buy the explanation, because what is missing is an apology. They knew what they were doing, they knew they’d get press; it’s just another dishonest tactic by people that have no scruples, who are brainwashing the minds of children to push their own political agenda. Shame on Wildflower School.
Given the sort of hateful aberrations we’ve seen in the UK on fracking, as reported by Bishop Hill, I suppose this isn’t surprising behavior. It suggests to me though, that the people that do these things are a slice short of having cheese on their cracker.
I wonder though, if Chico had email addresses for each tree in Bidwell Park, such as what was recently revealed for the City Park trees in Melbourne, Australia, what would the tree write back?
Here is what I think the tree might say in an email in the flavor of one recently sent in Melbourne:
To: Wildflower School, Chico
Subject: Vandalism at the hands of your students
“Dear School Administrators,
I’m writing to tell you that I’m shocked that a school that emphasizes Stewardship in it’s guiding principles…
Stewardship means…
Being the example you wish to see. Caring for people, environment (school and Earth), and our community with the joint goal of prosperity and success. As stewards we provide service to others and the environment by using resources productively and with good intentions. We teach and practice eco-awareness and connectivity to our planet.
…would purposely and with no regard for me and the people that enjoy my peaceful beauty would abandon such principles for a cheap political trick to get attention.
People that walk through the park want the beauty and tranquility of nature, not graffitti from people with apparently no regard for the trees that provide that experience.
Shame, shame, shame, on you.
Enjoy your day. Yours sincerely, Tree 1441724.”
UPDATE: Predictably, a few foolhardy apologists cry foul in comments saying that because they used “biodegradable chalk” on the trees “they did nothing wrong”.
If it were a PRO fracking message, done with “biodegradeable chalk”, those same people would have a COW over it.
Further, they used petroleum based solvent with a freon based propellant spray chalk paint elsewhere to paint political messages like this one:
![EP-150209876[1]](https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/ep-1502098761.jpg?quality=83)
Vandalism of a public park is simply wrong, no matter what was used to do it, and anyone who says otherwise is doubly wrong to try to defend it.
For those who want to defend this inane action and complain about this article, feel free to be as upset as you wish.
as part of a lesson on civic engagement and activism.
Seventh- and eighth-graders
i see they are back to teaching marketable skills in school again
Seemed a marketable enough skill for The Current Occupant (aka Dear Leader). Got him the top job. ;-(
Obama was elected because the US Press anointed him.
The Press caused his election. All he needed to do was smile.
How else could a candidate say “Electricity rates will necessarily SKYROCKET.” and still be elected?
@ur momisugly RobRoy
Only after he gave Hillary a beat down, if I recall correctly.
I could be wrong.
I believe this school was designed as GreenPeace VoTech.
That way the get their new puppets pre-trained and ready to break the law.
Here is a cartoon of what they’ll do next to hammer those frackin’ people.
http://www.maxphoton.com/nails-sticks-out/
It’s kid’s job to make mistakes.
Well, independent of being taught that activist vadalismm is ok (Greenpeace Nasca Lines), it is clear these middle schoolers are NOT being taught how to do independent research and think for themselves. This is an indoctrination school, not a teaching school There are a lot of canards about fracking promoted by folks like Greenpeace. Since they are easy to disprove, believing in them proves indoctrination. Essay No Fracking Way.
A California fracking ban would be a futile waste of time, just feel good green warmunism. Shows how clueless the class and its indoctrinating ‘teachers’ are. California’s Monterey shale geology does not enable horizontal drilling, without which fracking shale is hopelessly uneconomic even if oil is several hundred $/bbl. That is why on 5/21/14 EIA Director Sieminski announced the erroneous previous EIA Monterey shale technically recoverable reserve estimate (at any oil price) was being reduced 97% to essentially zero. He said, “The rock is there, the technology isn’t”. Essay Reserve Reservations. Both in the energy portion of ebook Blowing Smoke.
let me get this straight, Mr. Watts:
you are protesting chalk on a dead tree?
kids being used as propaganda puppets is just fine with you and the reason you to continue paying for it?
you whine about trivia and support monstrosity. mmmk
somebody’s priorities are off. must be mine, cuz i refuse to pay for it. i guess that makes me not responsible for it. chalk it up to COURAGE OF CONVICTION, i guess. try some.
[reply: “courage of conviction” is that why you have to hide behind a fake name to criticize me? Feel free to be as upset as you wish, but don’t lecture me on courage, chump. – Anthony Watts]
gnomish says:
…you are protesting chalk on a dead tree?
Get a clue, gnomish. This is an article from the Chico newspaper. We are discussing it. You can comment if you like, but by trying to blame the host you are the one who looks petty.
it was understood, mr stealey, that chico is mr. watts’ home town and the teachers, parents and children are neighbors.
it is understood that a charter school is paid for by taxes.
that neighbors find it important to rehearse their children in religious or political activism might, therefore, be expected to be yet more personal an issue for somebody who is tapped to contribute directly to its support.
and yet the beef is ostensibly chalk on a dead tree.
and that, sir, is legitimate cause for wonder.
you know it, i know it and any rational individual understands that discussing the trivial in this context is a displacement behavior. there is a reason for that, you can count on it.
the anonymous coward card may have some legitimate application sometimes but it is not possible to hide from me behind a wagging finger. disapprove all you like, mr watts, but if a person won’t dare to explain how dead chalk on a tree overshadows the crippling conditioning that will make monstrosities of the generation that succeeds you – on your dime- i just might be so bold as to mention it as peculiar and ask why.
if the response is utterly rommulan, i might speculate as to why that is too.
there was a serious and important topic in that news and it was conspicuously not grafitti.
there are the clues. what can be deduced?
anonymous coward says:
…crippling conditioning that will make monstrosities of the generation that succeeds you…
What “monstrosities” might you be talking about? Be specific.
This is all part and parcel of the 10/10 mindset, where children are taught a fatal lesson for daring to think for themselves. You call that “displacement behavior”. I call it propaganda, and it is not trivial when you add it all up.
what cvan be deduced?
Simple. It can be deduced that impresionable children are being taught that if vandalism is done in a ‘good’ cause, that it is A-OK. If you don’t see a big problem with that, then you have the problem. As it says in the article:
If it were a PRO fracking message, done with “biodegradeable chalk”, those same people would have a COW over it.
Why don’t you try that, and see what happens?
“there was a serious and important topic in that news and it was conspicuously not grafitti.” ~gnomish
dbstealey, here I think he is making a very veiled reference to the evils to society if educational freedom is tolerated in any way.***
That is a silly argument on its face. Charter schools are a form of educational choice and they have long lines for admissions, as parents try to flee the failing public schools, and the teachers’ unions. The charter schools are smaller, versatile competitors, who operate on a much smaller budget. Outcomes for many are often outstanding, and approaches to education can be flexible. This is the best case scenario.
My state provides the worst case scenario for charter schools. Charters were passed by voters, but the bill provides that the public school boards will control and monitor the charters. Why pretend that there is a choice and competition, when the smaller schools are regulated by the failed state monopoly?
He is also making a silly argument that WUWT should not talk about grafitti because he should be talking about more important things – according to gnomish. There’s a text book case of finger wagging – followed by a finger wag, saying not to wag fingers at him, no less.
***(Unless you are a Congress critter. These send their children to private schools and so do half of all public school teachers.)
Zeke,
gnomish also says:
it is understood that a charter school is paid for by taxes.
Is that true?
DbStealey,
California:
1. The funding follows the student to the charter school or the public “district” school.
2. The funding is less if the student goes to a charter.
3. Charter schools are not private schools. They have open admissions, unlike private schools.
Some problems with charter schools operating on less per student include requirements that teachers receive the same retirement plans as others, and the lack of provision for buildings and facilities. So they must do much more with much less.
Thanks for the explanation, Zeke.
+1 Anthony
Saved me from going full-bore on that……comment that was so stupid, it must have been worded just to raise the ire.
While unknowingly just relieving some of the tension.
I didn’t know that in various mythologies that gnomes were clueless.
“Courage of Conviction”? “Try some”? If Anthony didn’t have that, this blog wouldn’t exist.
G, you are in sever need of several clues. You may like “public education” but these kids were in a “Charter School.” You will find that the farther north you go in California the more “conservative” the state is. The result is that issues where the whack jobs of the left and right concur, like “what I want my child taught,” “charter schools” and other profound wastes are encouraged by-laterally. You may refuse to “pay” for public education, but that isn’t what these kids are getting.
Is it a biodegradable chalk? Or is it rock chalk, whose particles will rub or wash off and become small litter?
“Biodegradable” in this context means the same as “holy” in holy water. It is normal chalk (CaCO3) blessed by the local bishop of the church of ecology.
Chalk is CaCO3. It is “biodegradable,” but only in the sense that acid decomposes it. A dilutesolution of vinegar should clear it.
The culture of political dissent exists in America that was instilled at its inception to protect against the tyranny of political orthodoxy in what is fashioned as a secular, rather than a religious state. The first amendment to the US constitution protects the views of “chalkgate” activists, but does not protect them from our opinions of their action. They first broke the law of respecting the laws of the land, and in doing so disrespected all.
In that wonderful country of yours, writing something on a dead tree is a heinous crime. The culprits deserve the capital punishment, it is much worse that destroying a country which owns non-existant “weapons of mass destruction” or stealing a presidential election. It’s your country, you do whatever you want with it, none of my business, so long as you don’t get close to my backyard..
Is that you, Charley?
The tree’s not dead. It’s just pining.
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Lazy and laying down on the job
Hopefully you will be able to take care of your own backyard (this time).
When I was young, 13 (1973), I visited Europe. I was aghast to see spray painted graffiti on buildings that were hundreds of years old. I wondered how some Europeans could have such a lack of self respect.
Français, this is not the UN, this is WUWT. We dislike that kind of posturing here.
Do you think you are Chirac?
And don’t you ever forget it.
Europe is still free, because of the “backyard” incursions.
At first glace your comment deserves no response; however just to help you personally develop, roughly 5,000 chemical warheads, and bombs, 36 120-mm mortar rounds containing liquid blistering agents, 550 metric tonnes of “yellowcake” (sold to Canada by the way), Iraq had produced 19,000 liters of concentrated botulinum toxin (nearly 10,000 liters filled into munitions), 8,500 liters of concentrated anthrax (6,500 liters filled into munitions) and 2,200 liters of aflatoxin (1,580 liters filled into munitions). In total, the program grew a half million liters of biological agents. And who did Iraqi leadership use these on but his civilians; the Kurds.
Nuclear activities uncovered and destroyed included: a) an industrial scale complex for Electromagnetic Isotope Separation (EMIS), a process for producing enriched uranium. The complex was designed for the installation of 90 separators. b) a large scale manufacturing and testing facility–the Al Furat Project–designed for the production of centrifuges, used in another method of uranium enrichment. c) facilities and equipment for the production of weapons components. d) computer simulations of nuclear weapons detonations. d) storage of large quantities of HMX high explosive used in nuclear weapons.
As for elections, like you say, it’s not your business, but thanks for caring. Now, back to my Château Lafite Rothschild. Prost!
Hey, highflight56433, could you post references and/or drop me an email? I have references for some of those, but not for the biological agents, on my page, here:
http://tinyurl.com/DemsOnWMDs
I’d like to add references for the biological weapons, too, if you can help me find them.
Thanks!
Try contacting a librarian researcher at your local air force base, that’s what they do.
Well, my local AFB got converted into an Army facility, under BRAC. But I’ll see what I can find out.
I see. I’ll try to get you a real person.
1) This article from the New York Times is very current (2014) and very in-depth (32 pages):
The Secret Causalities of Iraq’s Abandoned Chemical Weapons
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/14/world/middleeast/us-casualties-of-iraq-chemical-weapons.html?_r=0
2) This is another recent (2014) and in-depth piece from the Washington Post:
Iraq WMD: Does the New York Times probe reflect what administration officials claimed?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2014/10/15/iraq-wmd-does-the-new-york-times-probe-reflect-what-administration-officials-claimed/
3) This is a 2014 article in Stars and Stripes
Report: US troops in Iraq exposed to chemical weapons from Iran-Iraq War
https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/iraq_wmd/Iraq_Oct_2002.pdf
4) This is a 2006 article published by the DoD:
Munitions Found in Iraq Meet WMD Criteria, Official Says
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=15918
5) CIA report published in 2002:
Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Programs
https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/iraq_wmd/Iraq_Oct_2002.pdf
I would invite anyone to visit me here: http://suspectterrane.blogspot.com/
where the thread “It’s controversial” explains a lot of the emotion behind this kind of thing
Great stuff, Tom G(ologist), esp. starting in paragraph #13, when you get around to discussing Hydraulic Fracturing.
I agree with daveburton. Good comments in your link, Tom.
François simply wànts to give us un exemple of hystérical exagération!
I get a smile out most of your posts. thanks
I think California SHOULD close down its fossil fuel industry, stop using all fossil fuels and all fossil fuel related materials, foods, medicines, and go to 100% ‘renewables’. I also think that everyone who is a Californian and agrees with that position must be required to remain in the state for at least a year following the big switch, and should not be allowed to import anything which is made from, or produced by the use of fossil fuels, from the rest of the country or anywhere else.
After a week or two, we can check in on them to see how it’s going. They would deserve it.
James Harlock:
I suppose you learned your Russian from listening to Chekov on “Star Trek.” The sad fact is that Russian does have the “v” sound…but does not have the “w” sound. (“Nuclear wessels” indeed.)
In fact, they do convert some “v”s to “w”s at times. I’ve spent time on the Crimean peninsula. If I recall my linguistics correctly, the two “phones” compose a single phoneme in Russian. I never did learn the condition that resulted in the the shift; vodka often came out “wodka,” but I never heard them have a problem with “very.” While I worked there English speakers often would come and spend time asking for help improving their conversational pronunciation of English like “her” which was frequently pronounced “h’yoor,” The “r” being trilled as they say.
Ochen Pravda.
yes I think I spelled “very ” wrong.
I still like Chekov.
Michael
IMHO, if the subject of fracking is to be broached at all in public schools, then BOTH sides of the issue should be given equal time since we are talking about public tax dollars being spent here. And, like it or not, IT IS a two-sided issue. Seeing public dollars being used to promote just one side of an issue in public schools gives kids the wrong idea of how subjects should be approached and taught to our young people in public schools to begin with.
As regards activism and encouraging young people to be activist, it should be broached in a general (or should I say a neutral) way, if at all. In other words, activism should be introduced as a subject without having the teacher revealing his or her bias or position on any one activist subject. That really isn’t so hard to do if one thinks about it.
Because they are funded with public tax dollars, our public schools are NOT the place to lead young people down the road to any single activist position on a subject of controversy today. Any teachers and/or administrators who are caught doing so should have their positions in the public school system reviewed by the school board. If necessary, they should be dismissed. Teacher either from the left or right who find it difficult or impossible to leave their personal biases at home when leaving for work have no business being in the school system to begin with.
CD!%# says:
BOTH sides of the issue should be given equal time since we are talking about public tax dollars being spent here.
AMEN! And each side should provide their own spokespeople. If that were done acrross the board, the fracking scare, like the MMGW scare, would quickly be history.
Anyone who supports these children’s activities should invite them to use the side of their home for a billboard. Who will be the first to step forward?
The ‘kids’ and the ‘adult’ supervisors that participated in the graffiti ‘activism’ should be cited and fined for willful destruction of public property. In addition to the fines, they should all be sentenced to ‘community service’, i.e. scrubbing the graffiti off of every surface they damaged. If their cleaning efforts further damaged the public property, additional fines should be applied.
This would provide the proper ‘positive learning experience’ their ‘wildflower activism’ deserves.
Not to mention “contributing to the delinquency of a minor.”
Indeed.
I think the best course would be to pull the schools “Charter” or have it put on probation. But then the people who are responsible for policing their activities are most likely of the same mindset.
Until education is reformed and back under the control of the public, rather then legislating to the public this type of nonsense will continue.
michael
“including making their own biodegradable chalk.”
I’ll respect these students the moment they remove all petroleum-based goods and services from their lives.
Wondering if they drew Swastikas with biodegradable chalk then would that be OK and not offensive.
Really?
I doubt that there’s a Freon-based propellant in the spray chalk.
The real pollution in the story is mind pollution. That school is poisoning the minds of those children.
Exactly!
It is likely a product from Aervoe Industries. It contains isopropanol (5-10%) and dimethyl ether (10-30%). See more here:
http://aervoe.com/paints_coatings/Marking-Chalk.html
UPDATE: Predictably, a few foolhardy apologists cry foul in comments saying that because they used “biodegradable chalk” on the trees “they did nothing wrong”.
If it were a PRO fracking message, done with “biodegradeable chalk”, those same people would have a COW over it.
Further, they used petroleum based solvent with a freon based propellant spray chalk paint elsewhere to paint political messages like this one:”””
I don’t know if my comment differentiating “defacement’ from ‘vandalism’ casts me as a “foolhardy apologist” but I didn’t see anyone saying “they did nothing wrong”, they said it wasn’t a very big deal.
Had it been a Pro fracking message, I expect the anti’s would have been outraged and the Pro’s would have shrugged. After all, there’s a lot of graffiti done every day and it’s seldom made into a big story.
You can hog the side-walk day in day out with some knuckle-headed placard and people have to put up with it, you can litter the rural roads with flyers. Stuff happens.
I didn’t see any such description of the paint in the story; it said they made it themselves and it was chalk.
Apparently, it was effectively erased in half an hour. They can’t clean up dog crap that quickly.
If I had come upon this graffiti, I would have certainly harrumphed and uttered words not permissible here, but all the indignation expressed here makes me wonder what punishment would be envisaged for these acts. I sure hope the law-makers were more phlegmatic than the opinions above.
mebbe,, This is less about the students then the faculty. PAUSE and reflect,, the teachers knew right from wrong. With a simple phone call they most likely would have been given permission. Its not about “fracking”‘ it’s about civic responsibility, common courtesy to others and ethics. It is the faculties responsibility to be be teaching these virtues not using them as a doormat. People do not be harsh with the kids, They naturally look up to the teachers. The teachers must be worthy of that trust.
michael
Had you said “this SHOULD be about the teachers, not the students”, I would agree.
In fact, the pre-occupation has been with the “vandalism” committed.
This happened as a consequence of teachers inculcating in their students views that they, the teachers, hold. It’s concomitant with a general elevation of children to the adult world by educators.
My objection to it would not be much less had they engaged in some activity that is not proscribed by law;
fund-raising for a campaign to print Tee shirts, holding hands on the village green and chanting, I dunno!
They have some march planned and scrounging for a bus. That’s not vandalism.
I suspect that the teachers involved did not think for a moment that they were embarking on civil disobedience. It probably never occurred to them that they were doing anything wrong.
The truth is that teachers are constantly impressing subjective views on malleable minds.
mebbe,
See Mac the Knife
February 6, 2015 at 1:15 pm
I don’t give a damn if it’s gang signs, taggers, ‘fracked up activists’, or just another moron defacing public or private property, I want the little bastards and the adults that set this up held responsible for cleaning up the mess… with some fines to serve as a ‘kick in the ass’ to make sure they don’t want to do that again! And while they’re serving their community service, clean up the dog crap also! That’s what punishment I ‘envisaged’ for these defacing public property acts. A little hard labor and humiliation goes a long way in reforming petty criminal activities. It’s a time honored tradition in these United States of America and an effective one. How copy, over?
Well, Mac the Knife (I hope the blade is under the legal 3 inches)
Cleaning up their mess and paying a fine seems about right. An appropriate response to a misdemeanor like thousands and thousands of others perpetrated every day.
I paid $160 for failure to signal a lane change a few months ago.
Now, how do you feel about teachers bad-mouthing resource extraction methods that they don’t know anything about? It’s not illegal.
mebbe,
how do you feel about teachers bad-mouthing resource extraction methods that they don’t know anything about?
Already had that ‘discussion’ with a shirt-tail relative teacher. I observed that, for a person with an education degree, they were astoundingly ignorant of the facts…. while being incredibly arrogant about their demonstrably wrong-headed beliefs. I followed that with a series of facts and hard questions that demonstrated just how wrong-headed they were. I haven’t been invited to one of their cook-outs since, to my sincere satisfaction.
Mac
PS: I’m an ‘old school’ metallurgical engineer – had to pass the Extractive Metallurgy courses first before moving on to Solidification, Deformation, and specific Alloy course work.
Yeah, but don’t you think they should be learning to read and calculate and study history, languages, how to think as opposed to what to think and science instead. Remember this activist kind of stuff is what progressive “Core” curriculum Trojan horses are all about. I have a professor friend who told me that they have to have pre-university remedial studies in English and mathematics for entrants after they come from high school these days because they wouldn’t be able to work at the university level. Most students solve this problem by going into political science and sociology two disciplines that have been totally bankrupt over about two generations. If these were my children, I would have had something to say to the kids and the school. No, folks, it’s not okay. It’s also not okay to be teaching all the sexual catalogue available to them when they are 5 and 6 years old either. The other hundred complaints I’ll leave for homework for the reader.
These kids aren’t learning anything about fraking. This class should be called “Introduction to Environmental Activism.” It didn’t have to be frakking. It could have been ANY “environmentalist” topic.
You can damn well bet these kids were not exposed to any objective , real science. They’re taught to recite talking points (e.g., ground water contamination, leaking methane, earthquakes, etc.), draw attention to their “cause”, silence opposition.
Their gray pony tailed partents must be beaming with pride.
Personally, if my kids mixed their capital and lower case letters like that they would lose their electronics for a while.
PS, from tall bloke’s. This will make your day!
Great graphic, Zeke. Opposition to fracing is all political. If that technology had not suddenly become so productive, it would have been attacked by the eco groups all along. But it took them a while to ramp up, and in the mean time we have had the great benefit of cheap natural gas.
There is absolutely nothing that fracing has done to harm the environment. Everyone benefits from it — except the Saudis and the Russians. It’s a win-win!
Sorry, I have kids, and they are totally capable of coming up with dumb and unsubstantiated opinions without being “indoctrinated” by anyone or anything different from whatever sways the mind of the typical adult. Also my kid went to an “open” school with no grades or classrooms and her classmate just got into MIT after totally acing every college level class she took in calculus, chemistry, physics and whatever else she took at Harvard Extension night school (4.0 average and all top test scores – she wants to be an engineer). So please don’t use this article to justify preconceived biases about how kids ought to be strictly dominated by the “right” people.
Have the kids anything to say ?
Love to hear it, “out of the mouths of babes” and all that.
Cris
February 6, 2015 at 2:51 pm
“Sorry, I have kids, and they are totally capable of coming up with dumb and unsubstantiated opinions without being “indoctrinated” by anyone or anything different from whatever sways the mind of the typical adult.”
That’s the exact reason we DON’T want them to be indoctrinated by a person that has not mentally developed beyond the stage of an angry child, Cris.
That is the exact same argument made by the FCC in the forties to impose the Fairness Doctrine.
“In a Wall Street Journal op-ed published online Monday, Ajit Pai, a Republican FCC commissioner, said the agency is taking a “dangerous” first step toward “newsroom policing” in the style of the now-defunct Fairness Doctrine. Under the controversial doctrine, which the FCC abandoned in 1987 and formally took off the books in 2011, the agency required radio and TV stations to air opposing views on controversial issues.”
Look before you Leap, like I always say. Applied to broadcasters, this forces speakers to say things they do not want to say, in effect. Applied to schools, this would require quite a lot of policing and micromanagement. How would that improve education? In fact, I think we all understand how selectively this would be applied and enforced. I don’t recall any of the public broadcasting channels presenting alternative views, except as strawmen.
Surely we can all see that the policing would only apply to non-green charters and to homeshcoolers.
There is, in principle, a plausible foundation for the Fairness Doctrine. Broadcast bandwidth is a limited commodity and access is expensive and difficult. It is “owned” by the public via the FCC. If broadcasters got together and blackballed a certain political party or point of view, there would be little recourse for the adversely affected party. You can’t just go out and put up a radio or television tower and turn on the juice. As usual, there is the law of unintended consequences, resulting, as you observed, in less discussion instead of more. In addition, the rise of the Internet and the ease of setting up your own blog has so lowered the bar for access to the public sphere as to make the Fairness Doctrine a solution in search of a problem.
A, that, my brother, is today’s rub. See, Big Government IS taking over CONTROL (of the distribution of the Internet (under their latest New Age/1984/new World order propaganda title of “The Fairness Doctrine” specifically BECAUSE Big Government does NOT control the Internet. Yet.
By indoctrination and self-promotion and self-censorship, they DO control today’s broadcast and cable mass press corpse of ABCNNBCBS (plus of course the BBC/ABC/CBC) “neutral” news readers. (Thus the absolute hatred of Fox news among the left/socialist party =- the only network only partially balanced!)