Monday, October 18, 2010

FYE Republic 2.0 chapter 7


Chapter 7 “What’s Regulation? A Plea”
            Chapter seven addresses Government regulation of newspapers, magazines, television, radio, and Internet. Suntein supports Government regulation in all of these areas. Sunstein believes that each of these forms of media  benefit from government, and should therefore be held accountable by the government to meet certain modest requirements.
            On the Internet, the U.S. government has been very active in policing. The government tracks down the makers of viruses and holds them accountable for the havoc they wreak, and helps to repair the damage caused by them. When the ILOVEYOU virus come out, the government is who the people looked to for solutions. Because of the responsibility that the government has to do this, it is only fair that the government would have the right to some mild regulation of the internet.
            Government holds more requirements for television broadcasters. Broadcasters have requirements to include educational programming for children, attention to public issue, and opportunities for diverse views to voice their opinions. However, considering the government gave the property rights for digital cable away to these broadcasters in the 1990’s, the “$70-billion giveaway”,  these seem to be very relaxed demands.
            Newspapers and Magazines are also given certain rights, granted and enforced by the government. These two forms of media are both protected by having the right to refuse to print things that they don’t want to. Essentially no other person or group can force them to run anything they don’t want to, or don’t agree with.
            Given all of the rights and protections that are offered to all of these forms of media, it seems that they owe the government, to an extent. With these protections, therefore, com regulation. These regulation to not significantly hinder groups, and without the government these forms of media likely would be completely unable to function, and therefore these regulations are a very small price to pay.

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