Congress Debates Muzzling Congressmen Online
Democrats want to restrict how members of Congress use social media tools and blogs. Think that will help their approval rating?
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An elaborate and exclusionary system to post official material from congressmen, with a partisan leadership serving as the gatekeepers, is not in the public interest. Congressmen and senators need new rules that will facilitate and encourage them to interact more freely with constituents using social media, not less. The U.S. Congress, whose public approval rating is at historic lows, would benefit from adopting more transparency and greater interactivity with the American public who live outside of the beltway.
Toward that end, Rep. Culberson has filed a letter of his own, with Speaker Pelosi, asking for new media to be treated no differently by the House than is the old media, which also carries commercial political advertising — in short, a “sunshine” policy. The power here, though, is entirely in the hands of House Democrats, but the decisions they make will have a lasting impact. There is no better route to regulating everyone’s political speech online than habituating our elected officials to accept such controls themselves.
It would be an impressive achievement if partisanship could be set aside in an election year and the House hold hearings, inviting real experts in social media like Robert Scoble, Howard Rhinegold, Clay Shirky, Chris Brogan, and others to testify and offer their best advice. Together, Democrats, Republicans, and the online community could craft rules for the House that are simple, technologically adaptive, politically neutral, and most importantly, respectful of America’s constitutional traditions of democratic accountability and unfettered public debate.
Mark Safranski blogs at Zenpundit.com, Chicago Boyz, and several other sites. An educator and historian, he is currently editing a book on the ideas of the military strategist Col. John Boyd.
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11 Comments
1. Andrew Ian Dodge:How is this shocking? Dems don’t understand the entire process of exploring, drilling and refining oil. How are they expected to understand the nature of the internet and social networking?
Jul 14, 2008 - 4:15 am 2. Dodgeblogium » (Dems in) Congress Debates Muzzling Congressmen Online:[...] prior committee consent, and then only on designated “official” external websites. read more | digg [...]
Jul 14, 2008 - 4:17 am 3. Tom:The only openness in Massachusetts or Pennsylvania is the open wallets of taxpayers to fund corrupt politicians and their billionaire buddies. Check out the budget processes and the empty promises of reform.
Jul 14, 2008 - 6:05 am 4. MarkD:They hava a nine percent approval rating, and they are working on decreasing it.
They have long since forgotten that their job is to represent us. Heaven forbid that there should be any timely communication with constituents. They might have to keep a lobbyist waiting.
Jul 14, 2008 - 7:25 am 5. redhawk:What the Pelosi Reid Policy of Inept Non Leadership is their master plan to Socilaize everythinmg .. Oil refineries, Transportation, Health care and ( and these idiots have not “gotten it yet”) the Socalled FREE press…as well as our Individual Right of free speech …
Jul 14, 2008 - 8:44 am 6. JOHN:Any wonder for the 9% ratings.. BUT is the American public ‘ Getting it” ?
MAYBE IF CONGRESS SPENT LESS TIME ONLINE AND MORE TIME DOING THIER JOBS THINGS WOULD BE BETTER.
Jul 14, 2008 - 1:08 pm 7. Justin:@ JOHN
Doubtful. Frankly we are all probably safer if this congress just took a nice long vacation. Until they are thrown out of office.
Jul 14, 2008 - 2:26 pm 8. Steynian 198 « Free Mark Steyn!:[...] CONGRESS Debates Muzzling Congressmen Online …. [...]
Jul 14, 2008 - 2:38 pm 9. keithacita:these fake marxists are determined to cripple the american economy. they’re mostly rich attorneys who have little understanding of business and science and don’t care.
Jul 14, 2008 - 5:31 pm 10. Rubicon:they’re always on another vacation. watch how they starting pushing their agenda against globalwarmingophobia. the will join arnold schwartzenkennedy and the mayor of san francisco who are pushing the death penalty for globalwarming deniers.
Whether it is members of Congress reaching out to constituents or talk radio speaking to those who chose to dial in their channels, free speech is free speech.
Jul 15, 2008 - 2:25 pm 11. Chris W.:Any attempt to deny or encumber free speech must be fought in the courts and forced to the Supreme Court quickly.
The “Fairness Doctrine” was not fair. It was designed to limit speech of any who those in power wanted to muzzle.
If we permit Congress to muzzle speech, we will see many more rights gone down the drain as this nation is sold out to the highest bidder.
I do not approve of the job Congress is doing, but I would rather hear what they are up to in up to the moment Internet postings, than to find out months or weeks after the fact when their schemes destroy my freedoms.
The Fairness Doctrine plans would be to silence Rush. Well, 30% of his listeners disagree with him, but they still listen. And just because liberal talk radio is ignored by the public, it is no reason to silence conservative talk radio. Perhaps they should get better talkers & policies the people want to hear about?! Liberal talk radio has as many or more big money backers as conservative radio does, so if they are failing, its their own fault, not the fault of conservatives.
Forcing Congress to speak only though approved venues, amounts to government control of the speech of elected representatives.
Some should be careful what they plan. One day it may come back to bite them hard!
Typical Demogods. If they stop long enough to look in the mirror they may start thingking hey, I am looking at the problem.
Global Warming is bogus and for that Fat Al Gore needs to humble him self and return the Noble Peace Prize.
Jul 17, 2008 - 10:53 am