Political Quotes

“Mr. President, 10 days ago, America lost a visionary public official, and I lost a friend. He was 97 years old. His name was Newt Minow. He was 35 years old in the year 1961 when President John Kennedy tapped him to chair the Federal Communications Commission. At the time, Americans were involved in big change--moving from their radios to this new thing called television. In his maiden speech as FCC Commissioner, Newt Minow famously described much of commercial television as a ``vast wasteland.'' He was especially concerned about the effects of endless commercials and violent cartoons and other programs on the minds of our children. He said the public airwaves should serve the public interest and that the FCC should use its power to ensure that this emerging new technology of television met that standard. Fast-forward six decades. Social media now fills the role that broadcast TV once did in the lives of our kids. Yet Federal laws currently allow social media companies to endanger our children with near total immunity. Social media companies can and regularly do sell children's personal information for profit, allow bullies to hound children mercilessly, and allow drug dealers and sexual predators to hunt for child victims on their platforms. Our laws, as they are currently written--as we have currently written them--make it nearly impossible for victims to hold these companies accountable.…”