Is continual exposure to hateful propaganda child abuse?

[BarackTheVote]

113. Does free-speech protect blatant lies

masquerading as truth? Look, I'm a filmmaker and I also work in TV, I'm very much against censorship. But having a television station that calls itself "news" while feeding disinformation is also wrong. If you're a news station in the United States, a nation whose entire political system relies on an informed public, there should be certain tight standards on what you can and cannot call "news." I'm not saying get rid of Fox, I'm not even saying they have to change their programming, I'm just saying they should not be able to call themselves a news network. Nor should they be able to claim accolades for themselves ("fair and balanced&quot ... it's something like copyright law, you cannot claim a work of art as your own, and that's not a violation of freedom-of-speech because you are not free, legally, to claim something that isn't yours. Likewise, the surgeon general forces cigarette companies to put certain warnings on their products--the Federal Government and its High Courts have ruled that public safety outweighs the cigarette's companies' right to present their product as harmless. So there's precedent.

Now, this is going to get a little more controversial, but... those airwaves ARE public airwaves, controlled by the government on our behalf. Certain guidelines are already imposed on them for the protection of youth and the information of the viewers: the FCC guidelines and rating guides. If something is broadcast that the FCC considers inappropriate (usually at the urging of the citizenry), then the broadcaster is fined. Calls to action vis a vis violence, and programs that espouse toxic hate and bigotry, should not be tolerated on the airwaves, nor should lying about the intention of your programming (i.e., news vs. opinion)... and if a station advertises itself as a news station, then it should have to have a certain percentage of actual news vs. commentary or other entertainment programming.