Oshkosh, WI – Sen. Johnson made the following statement regarding the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposing to study how the news media perform their work:

“The FCC is going to study whether journalists are meeting the ‘critical information needs’ of audiences in eight topics the agency selected, such as the environment or ‘economic opportunities.’ The FCC, which holds the power to decide whether a broadcaster can even operate, planned to send researchers into newsrooms to question journalists.

“The agency last week dropped a few questions about editorial judgment from its survey. On Friday, it said it would redesign the study. It should instead drop the entire project. It is incredible that a federal regulatory agency would think it is appropriate to question how journalists work. Our Constitution is clear that the federal government cannot restrict Americans’ freedom of speech and must have zero role in limiting what we say, write, see or read on political matters or public affairs. Surely the FCC must understand that the power of oversight is dangerously close to intimidation.

“It is up to news organizations to decide for themselves how to meet the ‘critical information needs’ of their audiences. Americans have never had so many choices among news sources. Competition drives them to identify customers and satisfy them. There is no need for the government to do so.

“The scope of the federal government has grown beyond any reasonable bounds when regulatory studies are inspecting how journalists do their work. It should have been a lesson to the Obama administration when the Justice Department was caught secretly seizing phone records of Associated Press editors and reporters last spring. As a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation with direct oversight of the FCC, I believe the FCC should drop this study entirely.”