Free Republic

The Left has watched uneasily as power drains away daily from the CBS Newses and the Time magazines of the liberal MSM and flows toward a new media alternative that range from (mostly) conservative talk radio to (Fox dominated) cable news to the ceaselessly expanding (thoroughly bi-partisan) Internet. And make no mistake: liberals want to snuff out this exciting, democratic world of analysis and debate and return to the good old days, when you got up in the morning with The New York Times and had dinner with Dan Rather - and basically kept quiet while your elite betters told...

The Left has watched uneasily as power drains away daily from the CBS Newses and the Time magazines of the liberal mainstream media and flows toward a more politically pluralistic array of new media alternatives that range from (mostly) conservative talk radio to (Fox-dominated) cable news to the ceaselessly expanding (thoroughly bi-partisan) Internet. And make no mistake: liberals want to snuff out this exciting, democratic world of analysis and debate and return to the good old days, when you got up in the morning with The New York Times and had dinner with Dan Rather—and basically kept quiet while your...

Oprah Winfrey may have introduced Democrat Barack Obama to the women of America -- but the talkshow queen is not rushing to embrace the first woman on a Republican presidential ticket! Oprah's staff is sharply divided on the merits of booking Sarah Palin, sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT. "Half of her staff really wants Sarah Palin on," an insider explains. "Oprah's website is getting tons of requests to put her on, but Oprah and a couple of her top people are adamantly against it because of Obama." One executive close to Winfrey is warning any Palin ban could ignite a...

Over the past decade, the Internet has given new life to one of the oldest forms of media: the urban legend. Sometimes an urban legend is complete fiction. More often a story is based on events that may be partially true but which become greatly exaggerated. The legend's spread can do lasting damage -- especially when it falsely informs an already contentious policy debate. Case in point: an event in the Midwestern town of Minot, North Dakota, has provided the impetus of the past few years to restore the so-called Fairness Doctrine and other media controls that would reverse the...

<p>"WGN radio is giving right-wing hatchet man Stanley Kurtz a forum to air his baseless, fear-mongering terrorist smears," Obama's campaign wrote in an e-mail to supporters. "He's currently scheduled to spend a solid two-hour block from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. pushing lies, distortions, and manipulations about Barack and University of Illinois professor William Ayers."</p>

Stanley Kurtz's appearance on the Milt Rosenberg radio program in Chicago last night provided an unsettling look into the authoritarian tactics being employed by the Obama campaign to stifle and intimidate its critics. I happened to be in the WGN studios for the entire affair because my friend, Zack Christenson, produces the show in question. He was aware of my previous reporting on the Obama-Ayers connection and kindly invited me to sit in on the two-hour interview. (For full disclosure, I work for two other radio stations in Chicago, WIND, and WYLL). As I arrived at the downtown Chicago studios...

To protect free speech from the political whims of a few unelected bureaucrats in Washington, the Fairness Doctrine needs to be wiped off the books. These Members of Congress are hypocritical because they voted for a one-year ban on the so-called Fairness Doctrine but have thus far refused to sign on to the Discharge Petition in support of a permanent ban. If someone is going to support freedom of speech for one year they should support it permanently

Video Series about Silencing Christians - Speechless - episode #7 - re: the Fairness Doctrine - was just on with Janet Parshall - interviewing Mike Pense, Congressman, discussing a measure before Congress NOW to ensure the resurrection of the Fairness Doctrine does not happen. Link is to episode 7 of this series - yes you have to "sign in" to be able to access these episodes - but not a big deal. Point is: Fairness doctrine likely WILL BE brought back into play in the next Congress - and/or by the President - should that person be a Dem -...

Nearly half of Americans believe the government should require all radio and television stations to offer equal amounts of conservative and liberal political commentary. Conservatives have expressed alarm in recent months over congressional Democratic efforts to restore the Fairness Doctrine which would mandate politically balanced commentary over the airwaves. Democrats are more supportive of government involvement in the airwaves than Republicans or unaffiliated voters. Democrats have been pushing the Fairness Doctrine in part because of the long-standing complaint of liberals that conservatives dominate talk radio. Conservatives counter that their political foes are just trying to use government to push liberal...

Free Speech: Terrorism and oil aren't the only stand-out issues this year. A President Obama and Democratic Congress could empower a multimedia thought police whose long arms extend even to the Internet.More than 20 years have passed since the Reagan administration sent the so-called Fairness Doctrine to the ash heap of history. In so doing, it ended a violation of the First Amendment's guarantee of free political speech that managed to survive for almost four decades. Those old enough will remember how afternoon sitcom reruns were regularly interrupted by some little old lady or wild-eyed activist being given several minutes...

WASHINGTON -- Last August, John McCain's campaign was a guttering candle, out of money but flush with half-baked ideas that were unlikely to be improved by further baking. Anyway, to have many ideas is to have too many for a campaign's concluding sprint, and McCain's revival has not been robust enough to bring him even with Barack Obama. Now McCain's rejuvenated hopes rest on his ability to recast this election, focusing it on who should lead America in a world suddenly darkened by Russia's war of European conquest. To begin the recasting, he should weed from the unkempt garden of...

Remember with me for a moment. Just a few years ago, that purveyor of perversion, Larry "Hustler" Flynt, won a court decision against minister Jerry Falwell in an astounding judgment. You might not recall the case, but it revolved around an obscene page in the aforementioned magazine, designed to look like a popular alcohol ad of its day, depicting a rural outhouse in which, as the copy spelled out, young Jerry was introduced to sex – by his mother! The ad looked real, intentionally, but was defended in court as "humor," or "satire." Like any son would, public figure or...

Nearly half of Americans (47%) believe the government should require all radio and television stations to offer equal amounts of conservative and liberal political commentary, but they draw the line at imposing that same requirement on the Internet. Thirty-nine percent (39%) say leave radio and TV alone, too. At the same time, 71% say it is already possible for just about any political view to be heard in today’s media, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Twenty percent (20%) do not agree. Fifty-seven percent (57%) say the government should not require websites and blog sites that offer...

FLASH: RASMUSSEN Poll release at Noon Eastern: 47% Favor Fairness Doctrine for Radio, TV... 31% Want Government Requirement for Bloggers to Abide by Guidelines...

Behind the attempt to regulate the Internet is an attempt at destroying our God given constitutionally guaranteed rights of free speech and an attempt to suppress the spread of opinions, news, and ideas. For the Multi-national corporations and it's leftist CEOs there is a need for greed and to limit our choices they way they do with Television. The chance to monopolize the Internet and the video games industry is met with the support of none other than RINOS as well as the far left. Hillary Clinton, John Mccain and to some extent even Obama have expressed support for regulating...

"Washington - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is making Christian broadcasters nervous. Pelosi, D-Calif., recently said she supports resurrecting the Fairness Doctrine, a 1949 Federal Communications Commission policy that required broadcasters who sent out specific messages to set aside time for opposing views. Such a move would ''really make it impossible to preach the whole counsel of God,'' said Rich Bott, owner of Kansas-based Bott Radio Network, which broadcasts Christian programming across 10 states. It would also, he said, likely put him out of business. "

There’s a huge concern among conservative talk radio hosts that reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine would all-but destroy the industry due to equal time constraints. But speech limits might not stop at radio. They could even be extended to include the Internet and “government dictating content policy.” FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell raised that as a possibility after talking with bloggers at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. McDowell spoke about a recent FCC vote to bar Comcast from engaging in certain Internet practices – expanding the federal agency’s oversight of Internet networks. The commissioner, a 2006 President Bush appointee, told...

""There’s a huge concern among conservative talk radio hosts that reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine would all-but destroy the industry due to equal time constraints. But speech limits might not stop at radio. They could even be extended to include the Internet and “government dictating content policy.” FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell raised that as a possibility after talking with bloggers at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. McDowell spoke about a recent FCC vote to bar Comcast from engaging in certain Internet practices – expanding the federal agency’s oversight of Internet networks. "

If the idea of the Fairness Doctrine bringing government control of broadcasted speech wasn't bad enough, there's also a possibility that its oversight powers could spill over onto the Internet and control Web content.

New PBS program says Bible isn't true, stories made up Your tax dollars helped fund "The Bible's Buried Secrets" The Public Broadcasting System (PBS), probably the most liberal network in America, will present a program this fall that says the Old Testament is a bunch of made-up stories that never happened. "The Bible's Buried Secrets" says the Bible is not true. It is scheduled to air on November 18. Archaeologist William Dever said: "...It's (The Bible's Buried Secrets) designed for intelligent people who are willing to change their mind. …it will give intelligent people who want to read the Bible...

There’s a huge concern among conservative talk radio hosts that reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine would all-but destroy the industry due to equal time constraints. But speech limits might not stop at radio. They could even be extended to include the Internet and “government dictating content policy.” FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell raised that as a possibility after talking with bloggers at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. McDowell spoke about a recent FCC vote to bar Comcast from engaging in certain Internet practices – expanding the federal agency’s oversight of Internet networks. The commissioner, a 2006 President Bush appointee, told...

There’s a huge concern among conservative talk radio hosts that reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine would all-but destroy the industry due to equal time constraints. But speech limits might not stop at radio. They could even be extended to include the Internet and “government dictating content policy.” FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell raised that as a possibility after talking with bloggers at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. McDowell spoke about a recent FCC vote to bar Comcast from engaging in certain Internet practices – expanding the federal agency’s oversight of Internet networks. The commissioner, a 2006 President Bush appointee, told...

Straight from the Horse's mouth: NPR's admission of unfairness -  says media does NOT have to be fair!   August 5, 2008: First, the infamous "fair" NPR had a person a self proclaimed "expert" in energy.., in order to sweeten-up Obama's argument and politics, claimed the usual nonsense that "nothing would effect the prices of oil" stating it over and over again, without any iota of evidence or logic of course, the "expert" even mentioned that "people are talking about inflating tires", What a BS! as if no one knows that it was ONLY Barack Obama that flipped and spoke rubbish, What a cheap attempt...

It takes some big numbers to measure Rush Limbaugh’s success — 20 million listeners, a $400 million contract. But the best index of Limbaugh’s effectiveness can be found in a much smaller figure, somewhere between a few dozen and a few hundred, which is the number of Democratic-party officials and liberal advocates who want to use the law to shut him up. Limbaugh, now celebrating his 20th year as a national radio host, is single-handedly responsible for a movement on the part of some Democrats to revive the “Fairness Doctrine.” With origins in the earliest laws regulating radio, the Doctrine...

On the Spot (CNSNews.com) - A bill to permanently ban the “Fairness Doctrine” – a dormant FCC rule that says broadcasters, mainly talk radio, must grant equal air time to opposing viewpoints – probably will not be voted on this year in Congress, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told CNSNews.com on Wednesday. Hoyer also joined House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in strongly suggesting that he would support reactivating the Fairness Doctrine, telling CNSNews.com that he is interested in “ensuring the availability of fair and balanced information to the American public.” Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), however, who wrote the bill...

BEIJING (AFP) - The Beijing Olympics were plunged into another controversy on Wednesday as China announced a backflip on Internet freedoms for the thousands of foreign reporters covering the Games. China's decision to reverse a pledge on allowing unfettered web access proved an embarrassment for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which had repeatedly said foreign press would not face any Internet curbs in Beijing. It was also the latest in a long line of issues to have tarnished the run-up to the Olympics, which start on August 8, following controversies over pollution, human rights and terrorism threats. Beijing Olympic organising...

<p>The difference between going through a Sunday as a married woman versus as a single gal is striking. First of all, in my single hood days in D.C., I’d be arriving back at my condo in the wee hours of the morning and would sleep and nurse a hangover for the rest of the day. As a married woman and mom in suburban Maryland, my Sundays are quiet and mainly consist of doing things with my family or around the house. However, during football season my husband and son normally get involved with sports and “NFL Sunday” for the whole day, giving me precious time to myself. During this “precious time”, I read the newspapers, watch news programs on T.V. and other media, and listen to talk radio for the entire afternoon and evening. Until recently.</p>

Lurking in the gloom of the Democrat agenda is a resuscitation of the so-called “Fairness Doctrine,” which would allow the federal government, at the behest of liberal special interests, to selectively harass and intimidate radio stations whose broadcasting format it finds objectionable. Thus, the proliferation of conservative talk-radio and virtually all of the alternative media would be threatened with eventual extinction. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is unquestionably moving in such a direction once again. In only the past few weeks, she has castigated what she terms “right wing hate-radio,” while refusing to allow even for Congressional floor debate on a...

After eight years in the wilderness, the left expects a clean sweep in the 2008 election -- the presidency (and with it the federal bureaucracy) and larger majorities in both houses of Congress. Looking ahead, liberals are determined to derail potential opposition to their plans to accelerate the deconstruction of America. Consequently, they have targeted talk radio. Bringing back the Fairness Doctrine is just one facet of their scheme to eviscerate the only part of the media controlled by conservatives. Crucial to an understanding of the jihad against talk radio is this: The left will do anything to gag its...

The word from Capitol Hill is that efforts by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and her Democrat colleagues to silence talk radio and shut down Internet access are picking up steam. And a struggling House Minority is doing everything it can to slow down the Majority assault on Freedom of Speech. Ms. Pelosi, for her part, has openly boasted of helping lead the efforts to resurrect the moribund “Fairness Doctrine” and has personally helped quash efforts by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) to get the onerous measure permanently repealed. At present, Mr. Pence’s bill, the Broadcaster Freedom Act, is buried in...

House Speaker Pelosi is hinting at reinstating the Fairness Doctrine, and many of her liberal colleagues in Congress are doing the same in both chambers. Alleging the press isnt balanced, they say government should be making sure all viewpoints meaning the lefts are fairly represented. I agree the press isnt balanced, but Mrs. Pelosi has it backward; liberalism dominates the press, including the three major networks and most major newspapers. Though originally the Fairness Doctrine did not require opposing time be equal, it came to be the standard. The concern at the time was the prevention of a single viewpoint...

My state (Oklahoma) has Democrat Congressman Dan Boren. Boren is one of 22 Democrats that has not signed Congressman Mike Pence's discharge petition for the Fairness Doctrine. Boren says he will not support Barack Obama for President. So I thought it would be a good start to send him an e-mail. Knowing that Mr. Boren is an "Independent" Democrat I sent him a nice letter asking him to support the petition. I will repost the e-mail I received from him. My question to Freepers is.. is this enough? He only says he signed an amendment to the financial services appropriations...

Last week, I experienced one of the most frustrating assignments in my twenty-nine years as a reporter with HUMAN EVENTS. Rep. Mike Pence (R.-Ind.) needs 22 more signers on a discharge petition to get his Broadcasters Fairness Act on the House floor for a vote. I decided to call some of the “Blue Dog” (conservative) Democrats in the House to see if any would help Pence’s measure to ban revival of the Fairness Doctrine (the communications policy ended in 1987 that would require radio stations to present varied political views and discourage small broadcasters from running Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity,...

Give the congressman points for true fairness and creativity.

"Our massive strategy was to use the Fairness Doctrine to challenge and harass right-wing broadcasters and hope the challenges would be so costly to them that they would be inhibited and decide it was too expensive to continue." --Bill Ruder, Democratic campaign consultant and Assistant Secretary of Commerce, Kennedy Administration The usual suspects will be doing the dirty work. Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY) or Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) will likely resurrect the failed Media Act (Meaningful Expression of Democracy in America Act) intended to make political commentary unflattering to Democrats more difficult to deliver and easier to suppress through congressional...

What is the Fairness Doctrine? - It’s NOT about fairness o It is a government plan to censor talk radio and Christian radio - FCC regulation that requires broadcasting stations to air both sides of a controversial issue o Reduces, rather than encourages discussion of controversial issues of public importance o While in effect, broadcasters limited controversial programming in fear of government sanction and administrative and legal expenses - Equal time would be provided free of charge, becoming costly to broadcasting licensees, who would eventually drop popular shows like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham o In fact, Bill...

IFI Media Watch It's a cold dark day. A group of stern-looking men and women sit in a conference room and decide what their countrymen should hear and what they shouldn't. "This isn't reflective of the people's wishes," says one member of the panel. "Yes, we'll have to make room for what our leader thinks," says another without batting an eye. Now you might be thinking I'm describing an event in Iran or the former Soviet Union. Perhaps it's an historical description of a meeting of the Communist Bloc in Mao Tse Tung's China. Sadly, it is none of the...

Vanity Fair media columnist says popular host will be 'oddity,' claims 'rise of conservatism' 'coming to an end.' It’s time to short-sell Clear Channel Communications stock if you follow the analysis by CNBC contributor and Vanity Fair contributing editor Michael Wolff. He criticized a record deal that locks Rush Limbaugh in with the radio company through the next eight years. Wolff mocked Clear Channel’s (NYSE:CCU) decision to sign Limbaugh to the long-term agreement on CNBC’s June 2 “Street Signs.”

Pull back for a moment from the day-to-day and see the pattern. Talk radio. Oil. Guns. Global warming. Smoking. On the surface this is a seemingly unconnected laundry list of issues, their connection one to another tangential at best. Or is it? In the increasingly disturbing view we are all getting of the messianic world that is Obamaland, these subjects in fact have a chilling commonality. * Talk Radio: Think back for a moment to that threatening letter sent earlier this year to Rush Limbaugh's business partners at Clear Channel Communications by Senator Harry Reid, the Democrats' Senate leader. It...

Breaking on Drudge-headline only

Democrat Representative Louise Slaughter is actively trying to revive the Fairness Doctrine. She is not alone, she has the support of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, along with Senators Dick Durbin, Barbara Boxer, John Kerry, and Dianne Feinstein. What is the Fairness Doctrine? It is archaic rule that forces television and radio stations to air both sides of controversial issues. If this is reenacted, conservative and Christian talk radio programs are unlikely to be aired due to the demand for equal time, which the station is forced to provide - free of charge. Proponents in the past have admitted that the...

The announcement from Speaker Nancy Pelosi that she wants to revive the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” is big news -- but it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. The Fairness Doctrine is an Orwellian and archaic Federal Communications Commission rule devised in 1949 that requires radio broadcasters to present both sides of an opinion when discussing controversial topics. It put unelected FCC bureaucrats in charge of enforcement and determining what speech was legal. Broadcasters responded by avoiding controversial issues completely, the opposite of what a healthy democracy should expect from its radio press. This wrong-headed policy was finally repealed...

The announcement from Speaker Nancy Pelosi that she wants to revive the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” is big news -- but it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. The Fairness Doctrine is an Orwellian and archaic Federal Communications Commission rule devised in 1949 that requires radio broadcasters to present both sides of an opinion when discussing controversial topics. It put unelected FCC bureaucrats in charge of enforcement and determining what speech was legal. Broadcasters responded by avoiding controversial issues completely, the opposite of what a healthy democracy should expect from its radio press. This wrong-headed policy was finally repealed...

They only need about 23 more signatures from our congresspersons on Rep. Mike Pence's Discharge Petition to send the Broadcaster Freedom Act to the House floor for an up or down vote. 113 congresspersons signed Rep. Pence's temporary bill last year, and when you call, they might tell you that, but they must sign Rep. Pence's current Discharge Petition. Rep. Mike Pence said that the Dem congresspersons who were against the "Fair"ness Doctrine last year, are afraid to sign his Dispatch Petition now. Rep. Pence needs 22 Dems to sign it, so it will get passed. It sounds as if...

Barack Obama has weighed-in on the issue of reinstating the so-called “Fairness Doctrine.” After being repeatedly questioned about the candidate’s position, campaign Press Secretary Michael Ortiz stated in an email message that “Senator Obama does not support re-imposing the Fairness Doctrine on broadcasters.” This position could be yet another one of those “deeply-held convictions” that Obama believes in unequivocally, similar to his long-held position on campaign finance reform. In January of 2007, Obama stated in a CNN interview with Larry King that the public-financing system “works.” Later that year, Mr. Obama challenged Republican presidential candidates to join him in limiting...

Free Speech: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi intends to restore the "Fairness Doctrine" regulating political speech — proof that in the Internet Age, Democrats have lost the communications war.Forty years ago, Walter Cronkite could declare on the evening news that the Vietnam War was lost, and that's the way it was. Do Americans want to return to those days by reviving the so-called Fairness Doctrine? Think of it in terms of consumer choice. You're on vacation, and you take your family into the $10.95 all-you-can-eat buffet. How would you like it if, when you walk up to fill your plate with...

First Amendment At Risk by: Emily Ham, June 27, 2008 For many congressional representatives, this year Fourth of July is not only a day to observe the freedoms Americans hold dear, its also the deadline to sign a petition that could be the dividing line between broadcast freedoms and a form of governmental censorship and control. At a press conference held on June 11 (Radio Independence Day), members of Congress, the press and organizations throughout Washington D.C. gathered on the steps of the Cannon Senate Building to ask Congress members to stand up for broadcasters’ rights. Speakers beseeched the House...

(CNSNews.com) - Conservative leaders on Wednesday sharply criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for endorsing a revival of the "Fairness Doctrine," which was described as "nothing short of an attack on free speech." House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) called the measure, which was enforced from 1949 to 1987, "outdated" and "a 1940s law that would take away radio and television licenses if broadcasters express their opinions." "Let's be honest, the Fairness Doctrine is an undisguised attack on freedom itself," Boehner said. "It is nothing less than a sweeping takeover by Washington bureaucrats of broadcast media, and it is designed to...

Barack Obama says he does not support the return of the Fairness Doctrine. There may be some Democrats talking about reimposing the Fairness Doctrine, but one very important one does not: presumptive presidential nominee Barack Obama. The Illinois senator’s top aide said the issue continues to be used as a distraction from more pressing media business. “Sen. Obama does not support reimposing the Fairness Doctrine on broadcasters,” press secretary Michael Ortiz said in an e-mail to B&C late Wednesday. Whew! Good thing Barack Obama has the reputation of always standing by his decisions and keeping his word.

Help Declare Radio Independence Day! The Media Research Center is leading the effort to expose and defeat these efforts. The Broadcaster Freedom Act (H.R. 2905) -- a bill in Congress that would ban permanently the so-called “Fairness Doctrine.” -- is stalled in Congress. We want to rally 100,000 signers by July 4th so we can press every member of Congress to go on record on this vital First Amendment issue. NOTE: The “Broadcaster Freedom Act” is currently stuck in committee. Sign this petition urging Congress to bring this bill to a vote by July 4th! -- "Radio Independence Day"