Episode 1:
A New Germany (1933-1939)
Posted on 10/30/2008 8:24:28 AM PDT by STARWISE
A Federal Communications Commission investigation of on-air military analysts is providing a glimpse of what Democrats and an Obama administration will do to critics once they capture Washington.
The FCC has sent letters to some of the nation's most prominent military analysts -- some of them pro-President Bush and pro-war -- suggesting they may have broken the law when they appeared on television stations to comment on and explain the war on terrorism.
The FCC investigation raises the question of whether a Democrat-controlled Congress and White House next year will investigate -- and perhaps criminalize -- all sorts of actions taken by the Bush administration. Obama is leading in all presidential polls, while Democrats are set to greatly increase their hold on the House and Senate.
The FCC letters came at the behest of two House Democrats, who say the analysts parroted on air the private briefings they received at the Pentagon. This may have broken the law, the lawmakers said.
The probe is sending chills through the ranks of military commentators, some of them decorated war heroes who share their expertise with millions of lay viewers. They see it as one in a series of moves the Left is making to intimidate and shut up its critics.
"We are seeing the dawn of a new era of the current Democratic leadership trying to muzzle free speech and the First Amendment," retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney, a Fox News analyst, told HUMAN EVENTS. "It may be the most invasive intrusion that we have seen in our history. There will be more of these tactics to follow."
Said retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely, one of Fox's first defense analysts, "It's an affront to freedom of speech. As retired officers, we're private citizens and can say anything we want under the First Amendment. The whole thing was to explain to the American people what was going on in war and analyzing it."
Democrats have more in store to try to muzzle conservatives. They talk of reactivating the so-called Fairness Doctrine in which federal government bureaucrats monitor radio and TV programs and rule on their fairness. Conservatives say the real goal is to kill right-leaning talk radio.
Talk radio is the one medium conservatives can turn to for their point of view amid a sea of liberal dogma from the New York Times, Washington Post, Public Broadcasting, the TV networks and Hollywood. If the government forces Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity to present liberal points of view, ratings will slip and the shows might be taken off the air.
"They're going to implement the Fairness Doctrine to basically do away with Right-wing radio," Vallely said. "In their minds, balance means Left wing. It's Socialists trying to infringe on our First Amendment rights."
Begun in 1949 as an FCC policy and then a regulation, the agency abolished the doctrine during the Ronald Reagan administration as an infringement on free speech. Democrats passed a bill to reinstate the policy as law, but Reagan vetoed it. There would be no Reagan to veto the next bill Democrats are likely to enact should Obama win the election.
In the analysts case, the FCC is looking at the practice of the Pentagon providing exclusive briefings on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to retired military officers, who would then use the information on the air.
In the Oct. 2 letters to 19 analysts and various TV networks, the FCC cited a New York Times article which accused the analysts of receiving the Pentagon information in exchange for positive commentary on the air. The letters, signed by Hillary S. DeNigro, chief of the agency's investigations and hearings division, said such an arrangement might violate the Communications Act of 1934.
The FCC sent the letters after receiving a complaint from Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, (D-Conn.) and Rep. John Dingell, (D-Mich.). Dingell has a history of using committee staff to browbeat and investigate Republican administrations.
"In their complaint, Representatives DeLauro and Dingell express concern that the analysts and [TV stations] may have failed to disclose this exchange of consideration to the stations, as required by section 507 of the Communications Act of 1934," said the FCC letter. "They also suggest that the stations may have aired your commentary without making appropriate sponsorship identification announcements at the time such material was aired, as required" by the act.
Some analysts also work for defense contractors who produce weapons systems used in the war. There were suggestions in the Times article that analysts pitched those systems during TV appearances.
McInerney, a hawk on the Iraq war, said the information the Pentagon supplied him and other commentators was the same as provided to the news media.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ended the private analysts briefings. Besides the FCC probe, the Pentagon inspector general is reviewing the program, which was started by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld after the September 1, 2001 attacks.
The DeLauro-Dingell letter to the FCC says, in part, "Our chief concern is that as a result of the analysts' participation in this DoD program, which included the DoD's paying for their commercial airfare on DoD-sponsored trips to Iraq, the analysts and the networks that hired them could have run afoul of certain laws or regulations."
The FCC is giving the 19 analysts 30 days to respond to the charges. [HUMAN EVENTS Editor Jed Babbin was a member of the group of military analysts who met frequently with senior Pentagon officials and participated in the program. He did not receive a letter from the FCC.]
Thanks
BTTT
But I think that they haven't thought this through. Does anyone really believe that once we have tasted freedom of speech that we will go back to swallowing their pablum? We will find a way, we always do. Even if we are limited to tapping Morse Code on the walls of our reeducation camps, the truth will get out.
Correction - they’re not supposed to speak unless they’re left wing.
I wonder if Jon Stewart could interview Hillary S. DeNigro and keep a straight face?
It’s too easy! If you’re already signed up, just go up to the top right of the Digg page. Just to the left of the search box it says “Submit New.” Click it and Digg will guide you through the posting process, which is done in a few easy steps, and then voila! I’ll be looking for that link so I can post it under FReep this Digg!!!
Ping. If this gang of Marxist thugs gains control of the three branches of government, we won’t recognize our country a year from now.
would be interesting to see! Don’t hold your breath tho’!
BTT!
Blind man ask me forgiveness
I won’t deny myself
Disrespect you have given
Your suffering’s my wealth
I feed off pain, force fed to love it
And now I swallow whole
I’ll never live in the past
Let freedom ring with a shotgun blast
Burn my fist to the concrete
My fear is my strength
Power, rage unbound because
Been pounded by the streets
Cyanide blood burns down the skyline
Hatred is purity
The bullet connects at last
Let freedom ring with a shotgun blast
Scarred
Pour the salt in the wound
Unscarred
This explains the Powell endorsement.
This is the future. The state will use its high tech to spy on, persecute and convict dissenters. The Soviet Union collapsed too soon. If they had the high tech tools we now have, it could have lasted forever. Our CIVIL SERVANTS (job rights, unions, etc.) are impossible to move or fire. They serve the state and any president who wants to use the apparatus of state to silence criticism will prevail. Nixon on steroids.
If Obama wins, we will all have to re-think how we communicate dissent. Or... have our lives destroyed. It is coming.
we can avoid any deaths or war
all liberals move north to VT.MA,RI,CT,NY city and Quebec
we’ll have the rest of the country and we’ll let them have their liberal utopia, homo’s illegals ,welfare layabouts, liberal judges etc
I guarantee that those liberals will be crying to come back ion 10 years but no we stay strong and say get lost, you want o come here then line up and get a visa
ping
The Democrats love the state and see it as the tool to control human life.
Our founding fathers threw off an absolute system and warned us not to p*ss it away. We are p*ssing it away.
Will the liberal judges protect us? Will Congress pass legislation to reel in government (remember the wire tap laws?)? I doubt it. Its too easy to use technology to destroy dissent.
Who will be the new Solzhenitsyn?
If Obama and his goons intend to lock up all of his critics, then his anticipated tax base of the rich will shrivel to nothing. Atlas Shrugged.
I have visions of Obama setting fire to the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence during his inaugeration.
I actually started crying in the car thinking of it.
“It will be a crying shame when “right wing terrorists” take out FOX News.”
Its funny how a citizen can’t get through airport security without the hassles of: shoes off, strip off outer clothing, leaving the toothpaste home, etc. all to protect national security. Yet... just get elected to Congress and you can leagally destroy the country... without even having to take off your shoes!
“They’ll be ousted when not needed “
Look at the wealthy, respected news icons of the past. They spouted pure party line and were richly rewarded, in more ways than just money. There was little dissent on the airwaves, and to a Marxist peace means “no dissent”.
On the other hand, look what happened to Tommy Smothers with his simple exclamation of “Bolshoi!”
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