Congress Meeting Fairness Doctrine: Worse Than Initially Tho
ALERT: Congress Meeting on Fairness Doctrine: Worse Than Initially Thought
"Senior FCC staff working for acting Federal Communications Commissioner Michael Copps held meetings last week with policy and legislative advisers to House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman to discuss ways the committee can create openings for the FCC to put in place a form of the 'Fairness Doctrine' without actually calling it such."
-The American Spectator, February 16, 2009
One by one, liberals in Congress and in the Obama Administration are scheming for ways to reinstate the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" as a way to muzzle Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and other conservative voices on talk radio.
And, just in case you were thinking that attempts by liberals to reinstate the "Fairness Doctrine" were simply aimed at conservative talk radio... THINK AGAIN.
It's actually much worse than we initially thought!
Now, according to the above report by The American Spectator, the House Energy and Commerce Committee, under the leadership of far-left Congressman Henry Waxman, is talking about imposing Fairness Doctrine-type regulations on all forms of media... including the Internet!
According to the article in The American Spectator:
"Waxman is also interested, say sources, in looking at how the Internet is being used for content and free speech purposes. ... Do four stations in one region carry Rush Limbaugh, and nothing else during the same time slot? Does one heavily trafficked Internet site present one side of an issue and not link to sites that present alternative views? These are some of the questions the chairman is thinking about right now, and we are going to have an FCC that will finally have the people in place to answer them."
Could you imagine if your favorite websites were forced to stop reporting the truth about what our government is up to... or if you were only permitted to read, listen to or watch content only after it was pre-approved by Nancy Pelosi, Henry Waxman and a bunch of government bureaucrats?
Think about that for a moment.
What supporters of the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" actually want is...
for the media and groups like CFIF to become propaganda arms for the Obama Administration and liberal government policies; or
they just want us all to shut up!
Both of those solutions are not only unacceptable, they are also UNAMERICAN!
Only the moronic could fail to anticipate where this could lead and only the ruthless and unprincipled could rejoice in this betrayal of everything America is supposed to be.
Fortunately, there is hope!
To halt re-imposition of the "Fairness Doctrine" and these other crazy schemes by the Pelosi Gang and the Obama Administration to curtail free speech, conservatives in Congress have introduced the Broadcaster Freedom Act of 2009 (S. 34).
According to Senator Jim DeMint:
"The bill would prevent the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from reinstating the Fairness Doctrine, which would suppress free speech by requiring the government to monitor political views and decide what constitutes fair political discourse."
Stop this totalitarian leftist take-over of talk radio. Use the hyperlink below to send your urgent and personalized Blast Faxes to Barack Obama and each and every Member of the Republican and Democrat Leadership of the House and Senate!
Demand that they either explain to the American people why they fear and loath the First Amendment, or stop their obstruction and bring the Broadcaster Freedom Act of 2009 to the floor for a fair up-or-down vote. Let the American people know which of our elected officials support the First Amendment and which do not support the First Amendment!
It Gets Worse!
Not only do supporters of the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" want to censor all content you read on the Internet, hear on the radio and watch on your television...
.. According to the same American Spectator story above, Waxman and the gang want to go even further to ensure they achieve their goals.
"[Acting FCC Chairman] Copps has been a supporter of putting in place policies that would allow the federal government to have greater oversight over the content that TV and radio stations broadcast to the public, and both the FCC and Waxman are looking to licensing and renewal of licensing as a means of enforcing 'Fairness Doctrine' type policies without actually using the hot-button term 'Fairness Doctrine.'"
"One idea Waxman's committee staff is looking at is a congressionally mandated policy that would require all TV and radio stations to have in place 'advisory boards' that would act as watchdogs to ensure 'community needs and opinions' are given fair treatment. Reports from those advisory boards would be used for license renewals and summaries would be reviewed at least annually by FCC staff."
Congressionally mandated advisory boards of community watchdogs to control media content?
Sound familiar?
It should. The Soviet Union used to call them commissars... political officers... politruk!
To put it another way, can you actually envision ACORN-like "advisory boards" acting as "community watchdogs" over Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity or Laura Ingraham... dictating, through the station owners that carry their shows, what they can or cannot say?
And just in case you're thinking that such a scenario sounds a little far-fetched, according to the same Spectator article:
"Also involved in 'brainstorming' on [the] '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."
So there you have it. If supporters of these totalitarian regulations get their way, you only will be able to read, watch or listen to content dictated by the likes of MoveOn.org.
It was not too long ago that we only had to fight attempts to silence conservatives on talk radio.
With liberals now in control of both the Executive and Legislation branches of our government, it would appear that "Fairness Doctrine" supporters are saying "Why Stop There?" The sky, to them, is now the limit!
Stop this totalitarian leftist take-over of talk radio. Use the hyperlink below to send your urgent and personalized Blast Faxes to Barack Obama and each and every Member of the Republican and Democrat Leadership of the House and Senate!
Demand that they either explain to the American people why they fear and loath the First Amendment, or stop their obstruction and bring the Broadcaster Freedom Act of 2009 to the floor for a fair up-or-down vote. Let the American people know which of our elected officials support the First Amendment and which do not support the First Amendment!
http://www.cfiflistmanager.org/waxmanfa ... inebe.html
Obama Told Us: "You Can't Just Listen To Rush Limbaugh And Get Things Done."
You may or may not have read the recent FoxNews.com report in which an Obama spokesman said that the President is opposed to reinstating the "Fairness Doctrine."
Yeah, right! It was an Obama spokesman who first told us that there was no pork in the nearly $1 trillion "stimulus package" passed by Congress last week.
And, if the recent fight over the so-called "stimulus package" taught us anything it is that the liberals controlling Congress -- led by Nancy Pelosi -- will stop at nothing to get what they want. Make no mistake: they have made very clear their desire to silence conservative dissent.
And despite the public rhetoric, people in Obama's Administration appear to be pressing ahead with efforts to re-impose the "Fairness Doctrine." Sure, maybe they won't call it the "Fairness Doctrine," but the result will be the same... or worse!
Even President Obama himself recently said, "YOU CAN'T JUST LISTEN TO RUSH LIMBAUGH AND GET THINGS DONE."
Liberals already control the major television networks and newspapers. The thorn in their side is conservative talk radio and the Internet... THEY MUST CONTROL THEM TOO!
Liberal columnist Bill Press recently lamented in a Washington Post column that greedy radio station owners are conspiring to shut down liberal voices on the radio.
Of course, that's an outright falsehood. Conservative talk radio is popular precisely because it is one of the ONLY broadcast mediums today where conservative voices and opinions CAN be heard.
Press doesn't like the fact that conservative talk radio is so popular and states without equivocation:
"And that must change. Not necessarily by bringing back the Fairness Doctrine, but by requiring owners of broadcast licenses to serve the general public. We need government oversight by the FCC of radio station owners..." [Emphasis Mine]
But you haven't heard it all. Press goes on to disingenuously say:
"Forget all the right-wing hysteria about liberals trying to 'hush Rush.' What the whole flap over the Fairness Doctrine boils down to is this: Companies are given a license to operate public airwaves -- free! -- in order to make a profit, yes, but also, according to the terms of their FCC license... Stations are not operating in the public interest when they offer only conservative talk. Make room for progressive voices on the radio. That's what the American people want. How do you like that, Mr. Hannity?"
Allow me to translate:
The GOVERNMENT OWNS the airwaves and the GOVERNMENT determines what the people want. Don't give me any of that hogwash about liberal talk-radio failing on a national level and don't stand there and tell me that something as arbitrary as ratings are any indication of what the public wants. The American people are too stupid to know what they want. The American people are too stupid to know what is in the public interest. The American people are hysterical right-wing morons and we (liberals) need to tell them what they want to see and hear!
But don't take our word for it. Camille Paglia, a raging leftist academician who, to be totally fair, often exhibits intellectual honesty put it this way:
"Too many Democrats have become arrogant elitists, speaking down in snide, condescending tones toward tradition-minded middle Americans whom they stereotype as rubes and buffoons. But the bottom line is that government surveillance of the ideological content of talk radio is a shocking first step toward totalitarianism. ... let's get real: Liberals have been pathetic flops on national radio... Instead of bleating for paternalistic government intervention, liberals should get their own act together. Radio is a populist medium where liberals come across as snide, superior scolds." [Emphasis Mine]
Stop this totalitarian leftist take-over of talk radio. Use the hyperlink below to send your urgent and personalized Blast Faxes to Barack Obama and each and every Member of the Republican and Democrat Leadership of the House and Senate!
Demand that they either explain to the American people why they fear and loath the First Amendment, or stop their obstruction and bring the Broadcaster Freedom Act of 2009 to the floor for a fair up-or-down vote. Let the American people know which of our elected officials support the First Amendment and which do not support the First Amendment!
It's A Full Court Press!
Press isn't the only one on the left talking about "government surveillance of the ideological content of talk radio."
Clearly Waxman, Pelosi and other liberals in Congress are preparing to gang up on free speech and bludgeon it to death with blunt instruments -- all in the name of Mom, apple pie, and fairness.
Pardon the pun, but in recent weeks, liberals have instituted a full court press on free speech.
Upon reading Press' column, Senator Tom Harkin could not contain his glee.
Harkin told Press:
"By the way, I read your Op-Ed in the Washington Post, I took it into my office and said 'there you go, we gotta get the Fairness Doctrine back in law again.'"
Bill Clinton, while on the Mario Solis Marich radio show, recently said:
"Well, you either ought to have the Fairness Doctrine or we ought to have more balance on the other side, because essentially there's always been a lot of big money to support the right wing talk shows and let's face it, you know, Rush Limbaugh is fairly entertaining even when he is saying things that I think are ridiculous...."
During that show, Clinton also lambasted the "blatant drumbeat" against the Obama-Pelosi so-called "stimulus bill."
Get it? Liberals are hopping mad because AM radio actually permitted the truth to be told!
Every good leftist knows that if you are going to socialize health-care and nationalize the banking industry and totally transform a country into a Socialist Nation, you MUST control the media!
Liberal Senator Debbie Stabenow recently told Bill Press:
"I think it's absolutely time to pass a standard. Now, whether it's called the Fairness Standard, whether it's called something else -- I absolutely think it's time to be bringing accountability to the airwaves. I mean, our new president has talked rightly about accountability and transparency. You know, that we all have to step up and be responsible. And, I think in this case, there needs to be some accountability and standards put in place."
Press then asked Stabenow if she would push for Senate hearings.
"Can we count on you to push for some hearings in the United States Senate this year, to bring these owners in and hold them accountable?"
Stabenow responded:
"I have already had some discussions with colleagues and, you know, I feel like that's gonna happen. Yep."
Later, the liberal media came to Stabenow's rescue and it was reported that she was "backing down" from that statement.
But how does one "back down" from: "I have already had some discussions with colleagues..."?
By the way, Stabenow's husband, Tom Athans, is a co-founder of Air America, the left-wing Al Franken radio network that went bankrupt because the American people already get enough left-wing propaganda from the major television networks, the print media and government controlled PBS and NPR.
Make no mistake, liberal elites intend to effectively take over the media and SILENCE conservative voices on talk radio and the Internet. If we are going to STOP them, the time to TAKE ACTION is NOW!
