First Amendment at Risk

Campus Report ^ | June 27, 2008 | Emily Ham

[bs9021]

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 members who in 2007 signed a one-year moratorium against the Fairness Doctrine to sign a discharge petition that would allow the Broadcaster Freedom Act (BFA) to be brought to the House floor, debated, and voted on.

“Last year 309 members of Congress, [from] both sides of the aisle, voted to put a one-year moratorium in place. But now that we have a discharge petition to make this permanent law, the Democrats who voted with us last time don’t seem to want to step forward and do what they did last year. And I think it’s time for America to work,” said Representative John Bohener (R-Ohio.)

Representative Mike Pence (R-Ind.), who introduced the BFA, said the petition needs 218 signatures from House members in order for the BFA to be reintroduced in time for Representatives to vote on the issue before this year’s presidential election....

[Las Vegas Ron]

First Amendment At Risk...

Didn’t McCain already take care of that?

[SJSAMPLE]

Justice Stevens has clearly said that “the People” reference a group and not the individual.

So, yes, The First Amendment is at risk.

[Dilbert San Diego]

I want Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, etc. to stay on the air in their present formats. I also want Randi Rhodes from Air America (is Air America still on the air?) to have her freedom of speech, as shrill and irritating as she is. Let everyone have their say. There should be strong competition of ideas and concepts in the radio marketplace.

There should not be governmental intervention in deciding who says what on the air. Bill Clinton used to complain that Rush Limbaugh had three hours a day to yak on the air and criticize Bill. That’s how it should be.

If Democrats/liberals/socialists/revolutionaries/enviros don’t like what Rush has to say about them, they should get on the air and express their own views, and try to persuade us to their point of view. That’s the right response to talk radio and opinions they don’t like. The wrong response is a misnamed “fairness doctrine” that will result in censorship of what is said on the airwaves.

Thank God the internet is here too. So in case censorship is applied to the radio and TV, the internet is still here to present the opposing points of view.

[Emperor Palpatine]

"If Democrats/liberals/socialists/revolutionaries/enviros don’t like what Rush has to say about them, they should get on the air and express their own views, and try to persuade us to their point of view."


Their silly ideas cannot survive in the marketplace. This is why they wish to silence views contrary to theirs in good old Stalinist fashion.

[Menehune56]

Unfortunately there are probably enough RINOs in congress that no matter who becomes president, the ‘’fairness’’ doctrine will probably be reinstituted. I predict it will apply to the internet as well.

[Cyber Liberty]

Politicians hate discharge petitions. Without them, congresscritters are free to brag about voting for and even co-sponsoring popular legislation, knowing the relevent committee will sit on it and it’ll never require them to actually vote on the article.

[coydog]

I’d like to see what kind of argument they could come up with to make that apply, since in the case of broadcast signals, the FD could be imposed on the basis of “signal scarcity”. Servers and sites could simply be relocated abroad to a jurisdiction that doesn’t give a tinker’s cuss about U.S. laws.

[bs9021]

Actually, they also want to extend it to the internet by forming “public spaces.”

http://www.aim.org/aim-column/fairness-doctrine-unfairly-promoted/

[SunkenCiv]

Google Shuts Down Anti-Obama Sites on its Blogger Platform
Publius’ Forum | 6/29/08 | Warner Todd Huston
Posted on 06/29/2008 1:53:36 PM PDT by Mobile Vulgus
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2038256/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/fairnessdoctrine/index