Political analysis
"FREE SPEECH? WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN FREE SPEECH!"
- By James Fish
- November 02, 2008
The First Amendment’s freedom of the press could be endangered if Senator Barack Obama is elected President with a veto-proof Democratic majority in Congress. You can, reluctantly, reach this conclusion because of announced Democratic Party policy and actions by the Obama campaign.
The problem first reared its ugly head when the Congressional Black Caucus arranged for the first Democratic Primary debate to be aired on Fox News. The debate was a ‘go’ as candidates agreed to appear. Considered a Republican stooge, Fox is anathema to the activist left wing of the party. Obama announced he would boycott the debate because it was being showed on Fox and everything fell apart. Fox was good enough for the Congressional Black Caucus but apparently not good enough for Obama. Likely he listened to the clamor in the Left Wing Blogsphere and followed the wishes of his most avid supporters. The event was changed to the much-lower-rated Cable News Network and a much smaller audience base.
Less than a week before the election the Obama campaign informed three newspaper reporters, who had been following the campaign for nearly a year, there suddenly wasn’t room for them on Obama’s airplane. Getting ‘kicked off’ the plane isn’t that unusual except for famous journalists and network anchors. It’s a message to the reporter, “We think your were unfair in your last story,” a shot across the bow of someone that really pissed them off. Usually space becomes available again after a short “time out.” In Obama’s case the problem was not with what the reporters had written, it was their newspapers had endorsed McCain and had printed columns by conservatives like Michelle Malkin.
This coincides with calls from Democratic members of Congress and the Left to bring back “The Fairness Doctrine”, requiring equal time for both sides on broadcast radio and television. Conservative Commentators have been far more successful in drawing an audience than Liberal ones. This galls the left, especially with the failure of their attempt with “Air America” network, ironically named after the CIA’s covert airline during the Vietnam War. They expect the fairness doctrine will silence Conservatives like Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity n reality all political discourse ‘over the air’.
Radio and Television stations have just one job; get as big an audience as possible. That’s how they make money. Conservative commentators draw a far larger audience than Liberals, so more stations air them. Under the “Fairness Doctrine” a station that was running the highly rated Rush Limbaugh show would be forced to also run, say, the much lower rated Rachel Maddow program. They would make a lot of money on Limbaugh and because of lower ratings, much less revenue with Maddow. Naturally the station manager will say: Tel hell with it”, drop all political programming and play music.
This would be the end of political talk and opinion shows over broadcast media. That would be tragic, however, it could get worse. Presently Washington cannot regulate cable and Internet content. There is nothing to prevent the government from declaring cable and Internet are “Interstate Commerce” and subject them to the same rules as broadcast. If the Supreme Court were to declare this takeover “Constitutional” it will be the death knell for “Free Speech” and no democracy can exist without it.
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I had never heard about the FOX news debate an the fact that it was canceled. That is very frightening that it was OK for the black caucus but not for Barrak. I to am very concerned about the fairness doctrine. We are al going to get what we deserve if their is a super majority after Tuesday.
65 days ago by Carson
You really have to ask yourself if we have free speech currently. Can you speak your mind and not be ridiculed or threatened because of what you say or prove. How can ‘we the people’ move forward when so many are still stuck on race and hate. Most of the minds have been poisoned by the media, that which has already been poisoned by greed and dirty ethics. Free speech is the bread and butter of our humanity but if people are not going to speak truthfully and think for themselves without being tricked out of their own common sense, then what good does it do for us if ignorant people do all the talking.
59 days ago by J. Johnson
The answer to speech you abhor is more speech. The answer to ignorant speech is facts. Free speech also protects the liar, but give the truthful the ability to point out those lies.
55 days ago by Jim Fish