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[StevieM]

1. You can argue that the Telecommunications Act was a mistake. But with or without it Fox News

was always going to happen.

There is a market demand. Conservatives want their own network, along with their own radio shows, to constantly remind them that they are right and that they are the real Americans. They want a network to tell them the lies that they desperately want to hear.

They want to live in an echo chamber. When their echos are contradicted by the facts they get angry. They get even more hateful than they already are. So they once again return to their echo chamber.

The market demand was always going to be there. Fox News happened for two reasons. First, by 1996 the number of Americans with cable or satellite was much higher, and even stretched into rural areas. Second, and more importantly, it was a few years after they lost power for the first time after the Reagan Revolution. At that point the right-wingers were looking for constant reassurance that they were indeed the real Americans.

[JI7]

4. same train breitbart and fake news makes money

It's more about people hearing and reading what they want to hear.

Not much about informing themselves at all.

[blogslut]

2. Blame Newt Gingrich

http://nymag.com/news/frank-rich/murdoch-scandal-2011-8/index3.html

One classic example occurred in 1995, after the Federal Communications Commission questioned whether Murdoch had misled it in 1985, when News Corp., then based in Australia, secured Fox broadcast licenses despite a federal law limiting foreign ownership of local stations to 25 percent. The matter died soon after the News Corp. book division HarperCollins offered the then–Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, a $4.5 million advance. True to form, Murdoch claimed to have no idea that the book deal was ever in the works—even though he conceded having met with Gingrich just a few weeks earlier to discuss the FCC inquiry. (The ensuing ruckus shamed Gingrich into forgoing the advance.)

[enough]

3. I remember at around that time, The Nation magazine published a huge

complex diagram of all the various elements of the media and analysis of how this consolidation was going to change everything in our politics and society. At the time I just saw it as typical Nation Mag doomsaying, but I've come to see it as the most astute and prophetic journalism I ever read.

[Crunchy Frog]

5. Should never have been passed. Symptomatic of a Democratic suicide impulse? Maybe.

Yes, there would likely still be a FOX, but there would probably be much more effective counters to it. It's also what enabled the emergence of the Clear Channel RW machine.

It didn't cause RW media, but it made possible the extreme consolidation that has largely eliminated media independence.

Very bad move on Clinton's part.

[mrgorth]

13. Agreed.

[still_one]

6. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 deregulated the media industry.

Its objective was to open up markets to competition by removing regulatory barriers to entry, but as can be seen it was and is a disaster.

Yes, it is true that Bill Clinton signed the bill, but it could not have been done without Congress

Here are some of the more interesting votes:

Joe Lieberman voted NO
John McCain voted NO
Joe Biden voted YES
John Glenn voted YES
Ted Kennedy voted YES
John Kerry voted YES
Russ Feingold voted NO
Orin Hatch voted NO
Paul Simon voted NO
Barbara Boxer voted NO
Dianne Feinstein voted YES
David Pryor voted NO
Harry Reid voted NO
Bill Bradley voted YES
Daniel Moynihan voted NO
Robert Byrd voted NO

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/104-1995/s268

[Chiquitita]

7. What about Sanders?

I tried to look, but didn't know how. The truthout said he voted no.

[delisen]

8. Dem Party lost house and senate in 1994. No law is the work of one man

Joseph Biden voted for the Telecommunications Act, as did John Kerry, and Edward Kennedy.

Too many Dems just want to pretend that only presidential politics is important. They act politics is like some 4 year cicada cycle.

Democrats elected a president in 1992, then lost the Congress.

"The 1994 elections resulted in Republicans gaining 54 House and 9 U.S. Senate seats. When the Republicans gained this majority of seats in the 104th Congress, the Contract (with America) was seen as a triumph by party leaders such as Minority Whip Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey, and the American conservative movement in general".

Very similar to what happened two years after Obama was elected.

Each president tried a different strategy for coping with the loss of power in congress--

If Dems continue to just see political as getting a man in at the top, we will continue to lose power. It's convenient to attack the president as Good/Bad. It is for some reason, a lot tougher to face the reality of our political system and make it work for the people.

[lapucelle]

9. No, it's not true.

The bill passed with a veto proof majority. It is extremely complex legislation. Here's a contemporaneous scholarly analysis of the law.

https://www.stern.nyu.edu/networks/telco96.html

If you're going to blame Bill Clinton for Fox news based on this bill, then you must also credit him with preserving net neutrality. The the law in question is the basis for the FCC's legal argument to insure a free and open internet.

https://www.scribd.com/doc/166377450/FCC-Open-Internet-Order

[Chiquitita]

12. Thanks

I'll take a look.

[ismnotwasm]

10. So what exactly are you implying?

[Chiquitita]

14. What are you implying that I'm implying?

😊..Glad to get A variety of informed answers. Definitely feeling like the hold of Fox, AM radio and such changed things for the worse in my native Wisconsin. Thanks all.

[lapucelle]

15. The implication seems to be that while Clinton will get no credit

for net neutrality (which is predicated on the provisions of this statute), he will be blamed for Fox News.

THE COMMISSION’S (FCC) AUTHORITY TO ADOPT OPEN INTERNET RULES

A. Section 706 of the 1996 Act Provides Authority for the Open Internet Rules

B. Authority to Promote Competition and Investment In, and Protect End Users of,Voice, Video, and Audio Services

C. Authority to Protect the Public Interest Through Spectrum

D.Authority to Collect Information to Enable the Commission to Perform Its Reporting Obligations to Congress

https://www.scribd.com/doc/166377450/FCC-Open-Internet-Order

[lapucelle]

11. The FCC's legal argument in favor of net neutrality is predicated on the provisions of this law

https://www.scribd.com/doc/166377450/FCC-Open-Internet-Order

[bettyellen]

16. The GOP had a veto proof majority- but thanks for smearing the Clinton's! Gosh after what this crap

Had caused the nation you'd think people would check before piling on more. Why didn't you?

[lapucelle]

17. Maybe the OP headline should be

So, is it true that the Clinton administration made the preservation of net neutrality possible?