Sen. Rockefeller: Fox, MSNBC Should 'Go Away'

Sen. Jay Rockefeller apparently isn’t a fan of cable news. In a hearing on television retransmission consent yesterday, Rockefeller went off-topic to rail against the “endless barking” of a news media that “has all but surrendered to the forces of entertainment.” Then he went off-script to add: “There’s a little bug inside of me which wants to get the FCC to say to Fox and MSNBC, ‘Out. Off. End. Goodbye.’ It would be a big favor to political discourse.”

Of course, what Rockefeller’s suggesting would be a pretty blatant First Amendment violation, and, as the New York Times points out, the FCC doesn’t have jurisdiction over cable. The West Virginia senator also bemoaned the state of television in general, complaining that “the old adage of ‘500 channels and nothing on’ has never been so true as it is today,” and asking why consumers had to pay for so many channels they didn’t want. Click here for Rockefeller's reward.
(More Jay Rockefeller stories.)