Obama's Backdoor To The Fairness Doctrine Advances

Although Obama has publically stated that he does not endorse a return of the Fairness Doctrine, a policy that effectively censors conservative speech on the radio, he did tell the FCC that he wants to see more "minority ownership" of broadcast outlets.

That is essentially his backdoor to censoring talk radio and the Dems in Congress are going to help him do it.

From Amanda Carpenter at Town Hall:

The Senate overwhelmingly approved a measure to prevent the Fairness Doctrine from being reinstated today, yet also agreed to urge the Federal Communications Commission to increase "diversity" on the airwaves. President Obama wrote a letter to the FCC when he was Illinois senator saying action must be taken to increase minority ownership in print and broadcast media. Conservative watchdogs have argued using government to do this is a "backdoor" version of the Fairness Doctrine. Both actions were attached to a larger bill to grant Washington D.C. voting rights. At this point it is unclear if either measure would be included in the final version of the bill. Conservative Sen. Jim DeMint (S.C.) sponsored the amendment to kill the Fairness Doctrine. It passed 87-11. Liberal Sen. Dick Durbin (D.-Ill.) sponsored the competing amendment for more media diversity, which passed 57-41.

So, what we have here is an initiative by the Dems to have government step in and shut down any network or stations that they don't think are "diverse" enough.

I'm pretty sure that Durbin and the other socialists who want to see hosts like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham taken off the air are already thinking up ways to claim that outlets who carry conservative talk radio are not "diverse" enough and also thinking up the legal language to be used to have them shut down. I guess you could call it affirmative action for radio.

Nothing like using a back-door to trample on the First Amendment, eh?

You can access the complete entry on-line here:

Obama's Back Door Fairnes Doctrine Advances
Amande Carpenter
TownHall.com
February 26, 2009

Democrat Henry Waxman Looks To Censor And/Or Regulate Speech On The Internet

This is no joke, folks! What you are reading right now may come under the heavy-handed regulations of a Federal government controlled by leftists. Here is what Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) had to say:

"This isn't just about Limbaugh or a local radio host most of us haven't heard about," says Democrat committee member. "The FCC and state and local governments also have oversight over the Internet lines and the cable and telecom companies that operate them. We want to get alternative views on radio and TV, but we also want to makes sure those alternative views are read, heard and seen online, which is becoming increasingly video and audio driven. Thanks to the stimulus package, we've established that broadband networks -- the Internet -- are critical, national infrastructure. We think that gives us an opening to look at what runs over that critical infrastructure."

In other words, if those in power in the Federal Government don't like what 84rules or any other blogger or on-line information source is writing, then they want to have the power to come in and delete it, or alter it to something more to their liking.

But it isn't just the Dems in Washington who are pushing for this power of censorship. Others have indicated that they want in on the game as well:

Also involved in "brainstorming" on "Fairness Doctrine and online monitoring has been the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, which has published studies pressing for the Fairness Doctrine, as well as the radical MoveOn.org, which has been speaking to committee staff about policies that would allow them to use their five to six million person database to mobilize complaints against radio, TV or online entities they perceive to be limiting free speech or limiting opinion.

That's right. If Waxman has his way, the 5 to 6 million people from MoveOn.org will be able to shut down what the other 294 to 295 million of us will have available to read and hear.

You can access the complete column on-line here:

In All Fairness
The Prowler
American Spectator
February 16, 2009

Tony Blankley Exposes The Arrogant Hypocrisy Of The Leftist Media And Its Dem Supporters

Look for many differences between the previous eight years and the next four years. Of course, you already knew to do that. But look at what issues are going to be tackled differently and why.

One of those issues is censorship and the manner in which Old Media deals with the Chief Executive. Tony Blankley's new book, American Grit, contains a chapter about just this and it would be a good idea to look into it further.

Writing for Town Hall, Brent Bozell takes us on a guided tour of that chapter and what it means:

He reminds us that during the Bush years, "the media blissfully endangered America's safety for the pleasure of striking a blow at a president it despised. ... Even when there's no allegation of wrongdoing, it seems that many newspapers today take a perverse pride in revealing U.S. intelligence secrets." It's these repeated actions by papers like the New York Times exposing and destroying our anti-terrorist programs (and in the case of the Los Angeles Times, tattling about how our government encouraged defectors from Iran's nuclear program) that cries out for censorship, Blankley argues. It's not enough to hope these newspapers will now cooperate with the Obama administration when it wants them to keep its actions secret.

In other words, leftist publications like the New York Times had absolutely no problem with endangering Americans by revealing our secrets when it would be an embarrassment to President Bush to do so, but they will help President Obama by keeping his darkest secrets safe.

More:

Blankley trenchantly recounts left-wing hacks like CNN's Jack Cafferty and Newsweek's Jonathan Alter finding the seeds of a "full-blown dictatorship" in the Bush White House, and snarling Joe Conason claiming Bush was headed toward an "authoritarian peril." Blankley dismisses these claims for showing "an embarrassing ignorance of the history of executive authority."

There were numerous shrill cries from the leftist media that the Bush Administration was engaging in some sort of censorship of the news. But it never happened. There is no evidence for it whatsoever. In fact, the evidence argues the opposite.

But what is real censorship? Let's take a look at the Presidents whom Barack Obama idolizes and see what their records on censorship were:

President Lincoln shut down dozens of newspapers and imprisoned their editors. During World War I, President Woodrow Wilson's Sedition Act banned "uttering, printing, writing or publishing any disloyal, profane, scurrilous or abusive language about the United States government or the military." At least 75 periodicals were banned by the postmaster general. During World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt gave FBI director J. Edgar Hoover the power to censor all news or communications entering or leaving America. Blankley notes FDR repeatedly asked his attorney general, Francis Biddle, "When are you going to indict the seditionists?"

Let's see, Lincoln, FDR and Wilson. Yep, Barack Obama holds those three in high regard. Think the leftists at the NYT will report on this? Probably not.

But was there any kind of censorship during the Bush years?

By contrast, during those allegedly dictatorial Bush years, our national newspapers proudly published op-eds by founders and supporters of terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.

Dictatorial censorship? Hardly. It was the working of a Free Press and President Bush allowed it to happen despite the shrill claims from the left and pathetic attempts at re-writing history.

What is Obama's view on this?

President Obama has already signaled that it isn't Hamas chieftains he wants to silence, but conservative talk-radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh.

Who do these leftists think they are kidding? Obama and his followers are clearly on the path of allowing America's enemies every chance to stand up and speak while simultaneously trying to censor private American citizens.

You can access the complete column on-line here:

Tony Blankley's Untimely Cry
Brent Bozell III
TownHall.com
January 28, 2009