The Federal Communications Commission is pulling the plug on its plans to probe journalists’ news judgment, the agency announced Friday, according to Politico:

“The study was to start this spring with a pilot test in Columbia, S.C., and it included questions about how TV stations determine what news stories to cover. It also sought insight into debates between journalists and management over news coverage. …

“FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler had earlier agreed to take out the newsroom questions and rework the study. But now the agency is scrapping it entirely.”

As I said before, federal regulators with the power to shut down broadcasters should not do anything that could possibly be interpreted as intimidation – certainly not questioning how journalists select stories. The move got plenty of attention in the press after one FCC commissioner, Ajit Pai, blew the whistle in the Wall Street Journal. Reaction was swift: Every Republican senator joined a letter from Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri demanding an explanation of the misconceived plan, and the FCC’s current chairman dropped some elements of the study. On Friday, he canceled the project entirely.

It’s unfortunate that a University of Wisconsin-Madison enterprise, the Center on Communication and Democracy, played a role in bringing to life the idea of having a federal agency ask whether journalists were doing their jobs properly. Studies by academics are one thing. Studies by federal regulators are another. A free press works best when it does not have the sense that a powerful government is judging it. The FCC was wise to realize this at last.