Videos > NRB General Counsel Mike Farris on "The Absolute Truth" | May 9, 2024 NRB General Counsel Mike Farris on "The Absolute Truth" | May 9, 2024 NRB 97 views • 3 likes • 1 comments 2 years ago • 8:00 min
Transcript [00:00] a recent ruling by the Federal [00:01] Communications Commission or FCC [00:04] unfairly targets Christian and [00:06] conservative private broadcasters the r [00:09] rule known as the quote broadcast [00:11] station annual employment report seeks [00:14] to force commercial and non-commercial [00:17] television and radio broadcasters to [00:19] annually report information on the race [00:22] ethnicity and gender of their employees [00:25] and upload such reports to their online [00:27] public inspection file per the fcc's [00:30] order the information provided to the [00:32] FCC in the form will not be deidentified [00:36] or kept private by the commission [00:38] opening the door to third-party [00:40] weaponization of the public file to [00:42] Target specific broadcast stations the [00:44] National Religious broadcaster has taken [00:46] up the call to challenge this wholly [00:49] unconstitutional FCC rule in the courts [00:52] in February Brendan Carr the senior [00:53] Republican member of the Federal [00:55] Communications Commission originally [00:57] reported that this rule had passed and [00:59] St [01:01] just opposition to it of course the FCC [01:03] is run by the Democrats now and they [01:06] overruled him but the Democrats might [01:08] have a hard time implementing this rule [01:10] because as Carr po points out in his [01:13] tweet the rule in question has been shot [01:15] down by the courts at least twice now [01:18] and join us now is Michael P Ferris who [01:20] is the general counsel for the National [01:21] Religious broadcasters which is an [01:23] organization that Prides itself on [01:25] ensuring religious liberty in the [01:27] broadcasting industry Michael thanks so [01:29] much um for joining us on this you know [01:32] it's probably not a topic that a lot of [01:34] Americans are are on top of right uh we [01:37] know about it because we're in the [01:38] broadcast industry tell us why this is [01:40] so important just just to constitutional [01:43] rights in [01:44] general well the government should not [01:47] be able to gather information about [01:50] people that they cannot legitimately use [01:53] and there's no legitimate use of [01:55] gathering information about racial [01:57] biographies gender biographies religious [02:00] biography sexual biographies whatever [02:02] they want to say because when you post [02:04] that on the on people's public [02:07] information it's just done so that [02:09] left-wing activists can attempt to [02:12] pressure dox attack people that don't [02:15] meet their profile it's a it's a [02:17] backhanded way of putting quotas into uh [02:21] Christian and other kinds of [02:22] broadcasting which are unconstitutional [02:24] the Supreme Court's made it very clear [02:26] we are supposed to be living in a [02:28] colorblind Society a gender blind [02:30] Society where everyone is treated [02:32] equally without all these systems of [02:34] quotas and pressures and that's in this [02:36] vein and we're going to fight [02:38] back um and I'm glad you're fighting [02:42] back and you wonder well how can they [02:44] even go forward with this and it's kind [02:45] of what they do it's semantics right [02:47] they find some obscure rule from the [02:49] past and try to implement it the [02:51] Federalist has reported that the [02:52] proposed regulation was actually first [02:54] introduced in the 1992 cable act and [02:57] that the US court of appeals struck the [02:59] rule down as unconstitutionally enabling [03:02] the hiring of Americans for their skin [03:04] color all the way back in 2001 now [03:06] meanwhile the FCC argues that the rule [03:09] is critical because it will allow for [03:11] analysis and understanding of the [03:13] broadcast industry Workforce the SCC [03:16] also claimed it could not generalize or [03:18] aggregate racial and sexual data because [03:21] it would be less useful so what they're [03:23] really saying is this will be used to go [03:26] after rightwing and Christian [03:27] broadcasters that's pretty explicit said [03:30] I think is that what you gather from [03:32] this yes indeed I mean if this was about [03:36] analysis of Trends then you could gather [03:39] the da the data and keep it all private [03:42] um but that's not what they're they're [03:44] about their their intention is clear is [03:46] to make it public so that pressure [03:49] campaigns uh either nice or vicious [03:52] pressure campaigns of various kinds can [03:53] be launched against broadcasters that [03:55] they don't like uh and so the the effort [03:59] is to you change um the ability to to [04:02] control your own hiring decisions you [04:05] change what the broadcasters are able to [04:07] do and this is about freedom of speech [04:08] this is about freedom of the press and [04:10] it's about freedom of religion all three [04:12] of those are interrelated and they're [04:14] very important to protect the first [04:15] amendment is first for a good reason and [04:17] we're going to protect [04:19] it we uh we've been talking actually [04:21] quite a bit on this show today about uh [04:23] the targeting by the Biden regime in [04:25] particular of uh Christian conservatives [04:28] pro- lifers just other you know [04:30] Christian conservatives specifically [04:32] you've got an SEC that is dominated by a [04:35] Democrat majority and although as [04:37] Brendon Carr noted the courts might have [04:38] shot this down a c couple of times in [04:40] the past what we do know is this Biden [04:42] regime is very committed to as targeting [04:44] a Christians they've made that clear and [04:47] it's they always seem to have the [04:48] philosophy you know lose but try try [04:51] again until they're eventually [04:53] successful do you think this will be [04:54] shot down again or or or is there a [04:56] chance they could Prevail in the courts [04:58] finally [05:00] uh I doubt that they have any chance of [05:02] prevailing in the long run the the the [05:05] US Supreme Court has a you know usually [05:09] a conservative majority um and on [05:11] freedom of speech they're particularly [05:14] good on this uh I argued a freedom of [05:16] speech case for plife pregnancy centers [05:19] in the Supreme Court in [05:21] 2018 and Justice Roberts joined the [05:24] opinion uh that the Free Speech rights [05:26] of prol lifers were protected in that in [05:28] that particular case and so yeah I I [05:30] think that we've got a good chance if [05:32] this gets to the Supreme Court I don't [05:34] think it's going to need to get to the [05:35] Supreme Court we're in the fifth Circuit [05:37] Court of Appeals right now and you know [05:39] I'm I'm very hopeful obviously there's [05:41] no guarantee at any level but I'm very [05:43] hopeful that that the uh chances of of [05:46] the fcc's rule prevailing are not very [05:49] good I it's like the Biden [05:50] Administration on student loans Supreme [05:52] Court says you can't do it and they just [05:54] keep doing it they you know they peac [05:56] meal it and they try other things and so [05:58] uh they don't care what the courts say [06:01] um they just keep coming after [06:03] it yeah and that actually does bring us [06:05] to some of the people on the FCC [06:06] commission I mean who exactly are the [06:08] villains uh my audience might ask this [06:11] is the head of the FCC that's Jessica [06:13] Rosen warell she is the ring leader of [06:16] this unconstitutional movement it [06:19] appears but you know it's it's it wasn't [06:22] planned this way and it's kind of [06:23] interesting we have you today on this [06:25] topic but we also had Jim Harden earlier [06:28] from Compass care uh pregnancy centers [06:31] earlier in the show because they're once [06:32] again being targeted by attorney general [06:34] in New York Leticia James for their [06:37] statements on myff of prone even though [06:39] the court has ruled on the [06:40] constitutionality of you know Christian [06:42] and conservative groups and their first [06:44] right amendments or first right [06:45] Amendment [06:47] protections uh indeed well you know [06:49] they've they've been coming after the [06:51] pregnancy centers but you know I did [06:53] have the argue the privilege of arguing [06:55] the case that will settle that in the in [06:57] the pregnancy Center's case favor but [07:01] the the process is the punishment so [07:04] they're going to take the pro-lifers [07:05] through this spend lots of money lots of [07:08] effort um you know at the end of the day [07:11] uh hopefully uh they'll be made whole I [07:14] mean in the case that I argued um the [07:17] state of California ended up having to [07:18] pay a pretty good amount of money for [07:20] attorney's fees that went to the the [07:22] nonprofit organization that I work for [07:24] at the time Alliance defending freedom [07:26] and and so um to pay back all all the [07:30] hassle they had cost but it it doesn't [07:32] ever make you fully whole and so um they [07:36] don't really care if they win or [07:38] lose it would seem because they keep [07:40] trying the same unconstitutional tactics [07:42] over and over [07:44] again and you keep fighting it so I'm [07:46] glad that the the nrb is fighting back [07:48] on this we'll watch this as it [07:50] progresses thank you so much Michael for [07:51] joining [07:52] us in my pleasure thank you
On May 9, Mike Farris, General Counsel for the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB), joined Emerald Robinson on her show “The Absolute Truth” to discuss NRB’s and the American Family Association’s recent petition to stop the FCC’s unlawful collection of race and sex data of broadcasters.
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