Posted on 01/15/2007 5:32:44 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Less than two weeks after Democrats took control of both houses of Congress, Accuracy in Media has exposed a plan by congressional liberals to use the federal government to silence conservative voices in the media.
Reporting from a so-called National Conference on Media Reform, organized by "progressive" activists, AIM editor Cliff Kincaid has revealed, in an exclusive report now available on the AIM web site (http://www.aim.org), that liberals in the House and Senate intend to push legislation giving the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) the authority to monitor and restrict what conservatives in the media say and how they say it.
Kincaid quotes Democratic Rep. Maurice Hinchey (news, bio, voting record) (D-N.Y.) as saying that he wants to put an end to the influence of conservative media personalities he finds to be "neo-fascist" and "neo-con." Their legislative vehicle is revival of a "fairness doctrine" giving FCC bureaucrats the ability to grant liberal activists "equal access" to conservative programs on radio and television. Senator Bernie Sanders, an avowed socialist, told the conference he would push such a measure in the Senate.
Kincaid calls the approach "authoritarian" and a threat to freedom of speech in the U.S.
In his Special Report on the conference, which featured Bill Moyers and Jesse Jackson and Hollywood celebrities such as Jane Fonda, Kincaid said that the event "turned out to be an effort to push the Democratic Party further to the left and get more 'progressive' voices in the media, while proposing to use the power of the federal government to silence conservatives."
At the same time, Kincaid noted that one conference speaker, freshman Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), pledged to protect or even increase taxpayer funding for public broadcasting that he admits is on the "left hand side of the dial."
Kincaid documents funding for the organizers of the conference from George Soros, who has made billions of dollars from secretive financial transactions, and notes evidence that participants were so far to the left that Senator Hillary Clinton was considered by them to be "too conservative." Kincaid also documents the active involvement in the conference by members of the Revolutionary Communist Party.
Accuracy in Media (AIM), founded in 1969, is America's oldest media watchdog organization. For more information, please visit http://www.aim.org.
SOURCE Accuracy in Media
No, wait. They already said this about us. I'm confused. Just which way IS that wind a blowin'?
I don't think so. I believe that the courts were about to end the old "Fairness Doctrine" arguing that modern media give all views a fair airing. Reagan ended the old "Fairness Doctrine" in 1987.
IMO what is a danger is the argument of a University of Chicago employee in his book, Republic.com.
The author argued that depending solely upon the narrow views of just one side of the argument (i.e., the conservative view, according to his interviews I heard) was a danger to our democracy. Government should force those people to read / hear / see other views. I believe he has backed off from literally forcing people.
The book was praised in the NY Times and was a best seller at some universities.
IOW, we can keep talk radio and the Internet as is but we may have to prove that we considered alternate views. Perhaps there will be daily quizzes?
I lived through the decades of the old "Fairness Doctrine."
We cannot permit curtailment of our free speech again! It's been defended with blood against enemies. We can do no less. Our free speech, their blood.
They're totalitarians. They won't be happy until everyone is compelled to agree with them.
"I feel a chill wind blowing across America...
No, wait. They already said this about us."
To a liberal, any idea they're uncomfortable with is a chill wind.
"They are afraid of war. If you want a war lefties, bring it on".
...in all seriousness, what could/would this country do if the lefties were actually able to stifle free speech on "conservative" radio? What can we, as a people do? Other than vote in 2008 etc.?
The Supreme Court will be the best place to define or validate what the Democrats are attempting to do and in the end result, strike down the law as unconstitutional.
If there is one thing going for us, it is that ideal.
I guess everybody has had some sort of shot, vaccination or blood-draw. This whole political scene reminds me of some shots I've had in the past. When the needle was stuck in quickly and surely the pain and discomfort was usually less than a slow, leisurely push.
Politically, we've been getting the slow needle for more years than I like to think about. We've cried, we've fussed, we've sworn up and down we'd do something about it... soon. Well, that slow needle is almost all the way in and we're beginning to understand that it isn't going to be pulled out anytime soon. It's gonna get worse before it gets better too. There will be small pockets of open rebellion and government - whether it has an 'R' or a 'D' by it - will move to crush it quickly and ruthlessly.
As is always the case when tyrants seek to keep their boot on the neck of their subjects, there will always be a few to keep the flames fanned.
BLOAT!
We've read this, but ping again, we need to be aware. This is NOT good.
"For that matter, how much confidence do you have that this Supreme Court?"
I have lost confidence in all of them...the President, Congress (both parties, in both houses), the whole judiciary, state government, local government.
To me, it looks like a sprawling, corrupt, short-sighted, self-interested mass. I see France 1937 here, and I don't see any prospect for improvement either. The foundations themselves of the country have rotted away.
I am pessimistic about outcomes in all directions.
We were ONE historic SCOTUS pick away from some major constitutional decisions swinging our way for a change and possibly avoiding much of the pain you now speak of.
Apathy, Pessimism and cultural diversity is what brought down the Roman Empire.
You are contributing to at least two of those dynamics.
that's what we have now--democrat tv that ignores conservatives or lies about conservatives.
retired people that i know that sit around 12 hours a day watching democrat tv foam at the mouth at president bush and iraq.
And that will fix things how again?
If this is what passes itself off as "conservative thought" these days, we are well and truly screwed.
How about this, find a candidate that can communicate. Instead of constantly drifting Leftward, see if we can't can't some motion going back our way.
Or is that just too difficult? Should we just surrender and BECOME Democrats?
Last conservative out the door, don't turn the lights off on me.
Republican filibuster from the likes of people that created CFR?
Well, that just wouldn't be very nice, now, would it?
I think this will be dangled in front of the true believers to encourage them to vote again in 2008.
The Dems need issues and the GOP is taking their bread-and-butter, minimum wage, off the table. I don't like it, but it seems the whole Samoan thing is making this Chinese finger cuffs for them.
What the heck do they think NPR and the rest of public television and radio is then?? They got that, and we go Rush et al.
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