Brian Lamb for President

Here is Brian Lamb explaining his most recent experience going through airport security.

This is a better picture of Brian Lamb.

Nick Gillespie, for Reason Magazine, had an excellent conversation with Brian Lamb. A couple of my pull-quotes:

reason: Nowadays the scarcity argument—the argument that the government needs to be involved because outlets are scarce—applies more to newspapers, since every city in America has far more cable news outlets and TV broadcast outlets than it has newspapers. Do you think it’s a good idea for the government to get involved in this area, whether it’s by helping nonprofits form or by subsidizing print outlets?

Lamb: For 31 years I’ve been associated with an organization that has spent a billion dollars totally from business, not from government. There’s not a dime from tax money in here. As a matter of fact, if it ever got to that I’d leave. I think the mixing of tax money and the media is a very, very bad idea. With the money comes the nudge, the power, the suggestion. It’s bad enough when you pay for it yourself. It would be far worse if taxpayer money went into these media organizations. I don’t think the government has any role to play at all.

and...

reason: Do you worry that the Fairness Doctrine might be revived and that it might be applied to cable, the content of which historically has not been regulated? Or that the FCC will say that since cable is where the action is we should be regulating it now?

Lamb: I worry about anybody in government thinking they can regulate speech, regulate channels, regulate content...

The whole interview is worth reading.