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October 22, 2009
NPR Objects to its Content Being Used to Inform the Public
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at October 22, 2009 6:02 AM
National Public Radio did a news story to promote the left's social agenda. Now, NPR is upset that their news story is being used against the left's social agenda.
NPR is taxpayer-financed. In a sense, its content belongs to the taxpayers of the United States. We pay for it. There's also a legal principle -- dear to the hearts of bloggers and satirists --- known as "fair use." Fair Use is the principle that allows a blogger commenting on a news story to include a brief quote from that story as part of the comment. A copyright expert is confident that the use of NPR's content falls within fair use.
The use is non-commercial (it is purely political); NPR's work is factual, not fictional; the portion used is brief; and such a use will have no significant effect on the market for NPR's work. And, importantly, the First Amendment is at its apogee in the context of a political campaign. See Monitor Patriot Co. v. Roy, 401 U.S. 265, 272 (1971) (First Amendment "has its fullest and most urgent application precisely to the conduct of campaigns for political office").
Between this and FoxNews, that darned First Amendment thing is turning out to be a real bee in the left-wing bonnet. I also would guess that NPR loved that report when it first aired, because it made them feel all progressive and edgy and stuff. They just don't want too much of the truth about the left's social agenda to get out to the voters, who may yet have a chance to stop it.
(Hat Tip: Patterico) (He notes this video may be removed again and has promised to repost it if it is. I have also downloaded a copy in case YouTube removes it. You can't stop the signal.)
