Transcript [00:04] welcome back to the program let's keep [00:07] rolling a headline from our friends over [00:09] at Newsmax nrb American Family [00:13] Association Sue FCC on gender [00:16] requirements quote the National [00:18] Religious broadcasters Association and [00:20] the American Family Association [00:21] announced they are suing the Federal [00:23] Communications Commission over the [00:25] reinstatement of Workforce data [00:27] collection order that would mandate [00:29] employer report of Staff race and gender [00:32] the nrb and AFA on Friday filed in the [00:34] fifth Circuit Court of Appeals a [00:36] petition to review FCC [00:39] 24-18 which reinstates form 395b after [00:43] 20 years of disuse the two organizations [00:46] are seeking a review of the order on the [00:47] grounds that it goes beyond the FCC [00:49] statutory Authority violates the equal [00:52] protection component of the Fifth [00:53] Amendment and the Free Speech Clause of [00:55] the Fifth Amendment as an abuse of the [00:58] fcc's discretion my next guest is [01:01] general counsel for the National [01:02] Religious broadcasters Michael Ferris [01:04] thank you for joining us so why now why [01:08] after 20 years of this form being you [01:11] know put away is the Biden [01:13] Administration dragging it [01:15] out well they at the B Administration [01:19] sees every opportunity they can to try [01:22] to silence voices they don't like and [01:24] this is a back doorway of silencing [01:27] broadcasters that don't meet their uh [01:30] their agenda uh they use these methods [01:33] of putting information out on the [01:35] internet to be able to give leftwing [01:38] activists the chance to dox people it's [01:41] very much like the Attorney General of [01:42] California tried unsuccessfully to get [01:45] the permission to disclose all the [01:46] donors to conservative causes the [01:48] Supreme Court said you can't do that [01:50] there's no legitimate basis for [01:52] collecting the information and there's [01:53] no legitimate basis for the FCC [01:56] collecting this data other than trying [01:58] to silence people that [02:02] does the does the FCC even have this [02:06] Authority well that's course the point [02:08] of the of the whole uh legal challenge [02:11] uh we don't think so the two dissenting [02:14] members of the FCC wrote eloquent [02:18] descents explaining why they don't have [02:20] the statutory Authority and that's one [02:22] of the big disputes that the Biden [02:24] Administration is pushing on multiple [02:26] fronts whether they can make up law even [02:29] though it's not consistent with the law [02:31] of Congress they tried to do this with [02:33] the coal industry they got shot down by [02:35] the Supreme Court when they said no on [02:37] major questions of policy like this you [02:40] got to be implementing the law of [02:41] congress not making up your own in many [02:43] other respects the Biden Administration [02:46] thinks that they should just be able to [02:47] make up whatever law they want Even [02:49] though article one section one of the [02:51] Constitution says all legislative [02:53] authorities vested in Congress so that's [02:56] really you know in an ultimate sense the [02:58] test that's going on here is are we a [03:00] republic where our elected officials [03:02] make the law or can these appointed [03:04] officials now that they have a Democrat [03:06] majority on the FCC make whatever rules [03:08] they [03:10] want um let's say you do fill out this [03:15] form and it doesn't come out to the [03:18] administration's liking what are they [03:20] going to do about [03:21] it well there's not much that they could [03:24] probably do directly at least not on the [03:26] short run but what they will do is [03:29] publish it to the whole world and that [03:31] sets you up that this provides the raw [03:33] material for the cancel culture who want [03:36] to try to stop anybody that they don't [03:38] like and they'll they'll come after [03:40] advertisers they'll come after they'll [03:42] be filing claims against your licenses [03:45] and and so will create an atmosphere of [03:50] of combativeness that the very fact that [03:53] you have to defend yourself on every [03:55] front is a chilling effect on Free [03:58] Speech altogether and so we just don't [04:00] think that uh the FCC should be able to [04:03] subject us to this kind of heckler's [04:04] promise or excuse me heckler's veto that [04:07] they're trying to impose on on um [04:09] religious and other other stations that [04:11] they don't like like their methodology [04:13] they you know if you don't meet their [04:15] quot of based uh way of hiring people [04:18] you hire the best people regardless of [04:20] race of course anybody engages in uh [04:23] racial discrimination or gender [04:25] discrimination in these contexts they're [04:27] disobeying the law and they they should [04:29] be punished for disobeying the law but [04:31] that's not what this is about this is [04:33] about collecting data and assuming from [04:36] data that you are disobeying these basic [04:39] fundamental laws that nobody disputes [04:41] the legitimacy of those laws on about [04:44] discrimination but this is not about [04:46] that this is about quotas this is about [04:48] doxing this is about the cancel culture [04:51] and giving the raw materials to people [04:52] who don't like the the kind of voices [04:55] that are being raised against the Biden [04:56] administrations so many uh tax on free [05:00] speech and other kind of freedoms in our [05:02] country I it just seems like they have [05:05] it out for for religious broadcasters [05:07] doesn't it it really does feel like that [05:09] like you hesky Christians are you know [05:12] kind of a [05:13] nuisance indeed um they there's a a [05:17] great variety of people they don't like [05:19] but I think we sit at the very center of [05:20] their dislike and they want to curtail [05:23] our rights and particular and that's why [05:24] the equal protection challenge is a part [05:26] of it but free speech under the First [05:28] Amendment equal protection under the [05:30] Fifth Amendment those are the basic [05:32] constitutional issues and we're hopeful [05:35] although you can never predict [05:36] absolutely what will happen we're [05:38] hopeful for success in this case you [05:41] know they're gonna find if if if this is [05:43] going to be the order of the day you [05:45] know not The Stereotype but I bet you're [05:47] going to find there's not a lot of [05:48] people of Asian descent working on [05:50] hip-hop radio stations okay so the the [05:53] data they collect might create [05:56] uncomfortable circumstances for [05:59] broadcasters they didn't intend to [06:01] create uncomfortable circumstances [06:03] for it could um and and you know we have [06:08] seen from what's been going on in [06:10] college campuses that people that [06:12] thought themselves safe from these kind [06:14] of leftist progressive attacks suddenly [06:17] are finding themselves also within the [06:19] cross eras of of attack and so it could [06:22] back backfire on them in ways they're [06:24] not expecting uh but you know the real [06:27] simple approach to this is can the [06:30] government make legitimate use of this [06:32] information the answer is no there [06:34] really isn't any legitimate purpose for [06:36] Gathering uh this kind of data in a in a [06:38] society that's supposed to be uh gender [06:41] neutral and race blind uh we should be [06:43] color a colorblind Society like Martin [06:46] Luther King said in his famous speeches [06:49] that's the kind of thing that they can't [06:51] make legitimate use of and when they [06:53] can't make legitimate use of it they [06:54] shouldn't be able to gather the data and [06:56] then publicize it to the whole world who [06:59] doesn't want to use the information [07:01] legitimately they just want to close and [07:03] cancel the people they don't [07:05] like all right I got to leave it there [07:07] keep us posted on this keep us tell us [07:09] how it [07:10] progresses we will thank you very much
