“I hate to open this can of worms but is there any reason why the FCC couldn’t simply pull their broadcasting permit once it expires?”
—Jonathan Zasloff, a law professor at UCLA, suggesting on the mailing list “Journolist” that the federal government take Fox News off the air.
How is this unethical? Let me count the ways:
- It is stunningly incompetent, and indicates that this professor should not be permitted to open his mouth in front of a classroom. The F.C.C. doesn’t license cable broadcasters.
- It demonstrates approval of the abuse of government power, the chilling of First Amendment rights to a free press and free speech, censorship, and shows a complete lack of respect or fairness to competing points of view.
- It demonstrates a personal bias so strong that it interferes with his ability to do his job, which requires a sound, scholarly, reasonable interpretation of the laws of the United States, and their underlying principles—none of which are consistent with the belief that the government should unilaterally remove a conservative news source.
Yes, we should all be grateful to the existence of Fox News, if only for its ability to so infuriate partisan ideologues like the Professor that they reveal how contemptuous they are of American ideals when they are exercised by political foes.
And I, for one, am glad that I did not get my law degree at U.C.L.A.
Ethics Alarms 
I would guess that, if anything, Zasloff’s stock has gone up amongst law professors. First, he said what most law professors were probably thinking. Second, he has shown himself to be accepted amongst powerful “progressives” to such a degree that they trusted him as a member of their secret little list. Many other law professors probably wished they were accepted into that clique. Zasloff won’t suffer one bit from this. Now, if he were a conservative, and said something like that about MSNBC he’d be shouted out of the academy.
Good comment, so I’ll waive the rules against anonymous comments with phony e-mail addresses this time. Unless “Anon” really is your name: is that French?
I think even ideological mania wouldn’t stop people who know anything from doubting the sanity/ competence/ credibility of law professor who makes such an ignorant and manifestly unconstitutional suggestion. It’s bad out there, but it isn’t THAT bad.
He’s embarrassed. He has to be.