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AIM: Congressional Liberals Bare Plan to Muzzle Conservative Speech
U.S. Newswire on Yahoo ^ | 1/15/07 | AIM

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


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Extended News; Politics/Elections; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: 2closetocw2; bloat; censorship; congressional; conservative; fairnessdoctrine; firstamendment; liberals; muzzle; silenceamerica; speech; stockpile; stockpilesong; stockpileweapons; talkradio
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To: Jim Robinson

Jim,

We saw this coming, the march to silence conservative voices on Talk Radio in advance of a general silencing of Conservative ideals.

Yep, those conservatives who said that a Democratic takeover of congress would wake up the Republicans are what the left has been for decades, USEFUL IDIOTS!


81 posted on 01/15/2007 8:30:51 PM PST by Leofl (I'm from Texas, we don't dial 9-11)
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To: Dog Gone
It would have to overcome a Republican filibuster and a Bush veto and then get 2/3rds of Congress to override.

Oh a filibuster might endanger the Republican Senators (no filibuster in the House) standing on the Washington cocktail circuit.

Bush didn't veto CFR, why would he veto this? But if he did, you never know what the RINOs in Congress will do, or actually you can pretty much predict they'll think it's peachy.

82 posted on 01/15/2007 9:42:41 PM PST by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: Pharmboy
...and watch out: they'll be coming after the Internet next.

What do mean "next"?

83 posted on 01/15/2007 9:44:49 PM PST by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: NormsRevenge

bookmark and bump!


84 posted on 01/15/2007 10:02:53 PM PST by traviskicks (http://www.neoperspectives.com/Ron_Paul_2008.htm)
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To: NormsRevenge
Hinchey is the Congressman from Woodstock!

(Both the town and the actual site of the "Event" by the same name)

It appears as if the Senate is hanging lots of this kind of stuff on the Christmas tree of S. 1, "`Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act of 2007', as amendments.

It'll be a "Motherhood" bill, and anyone who even hints at opposition will be tarred and feathered by the Drive By Media, just as they were for McCain-Fiengold (CFR).

By the time they're done, even many FReepers will support the bill, not knowing the details. For one thing it supposedly eliminates "Earmarks", and restricts unrelated amendments in Conference Committee. Who wouldn't support that?

They appear to be using the proven formula of McCain-Fiengold.

One example of what's on the Christmas Tree, in the original, not as an amendment, is a section entitiled: SEC. 220. DISCLOSURE OF PAID EFFORTS TO STIMULATE GRASSROOTS LOBBYING..

Which looks like it might affect FR, although without wading through the legalese and looking up the sections of current law which it modifies, it's a little hared to tell.

85 posted on 01/15/2007 10:09:43 PM PST by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: JSteff
If they get the Presidency in 2 years it will happen by executive order.

If they get the Presidency, they'll likely retain both Houses of Congress as well. They won't need to use executive authority. Laws are more permanent and harder to change, especially with regard to the enforcement bureaucracy they create.

86 posted on 01/15/2007 10:11:50 PM PST by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: Jim Robinson
They already are. Pelosi wants all "grassroots" organizations that communicate with 500 or more people to register with the Congress, file financials quaterly, and to report separately on each and every issue they advocate

That's already in Senate bill 1. You know what's most important over at the Upper House. Staying in the Upper House of course.

87 posted on 01/15/2007 10:14:36 PM PST by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: El Gato; All
U.S. civilians can face military trials

Specifically applies to government employees and journalists...

88 posted on 01/15/2007 10:17:01 PM PST by null and void (Propaganda doesn't have to make sense. Hell, it often works better if it doesn't.)
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To: NormsRevenge

DOA, as long as the 41 vote GOP firewall holds up in the Senate.


89 posted on 01/15/2007 10:17:08 PM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: PSYCHO-FREEP
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.

Yea, that approach worked so well with the McCain-Fiengold Incumbent Protection Act, didn't it? This is really just more of the same.

90 posted on 01/15/2007 10:19:15 PM PST by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: Eric_WA
swing voters (who shifted from evenly balanced to almost 60% Democrat, mainly on the issues of the war and congressional corruption

And the mushy middle voted based on the main stream media lies and half truths about those issues. They did not report the full story, only the negative stuff, our casualites, not the enemies for instance, on the war. They also only reported, to great degree, on corrupt Republicans, while barely mentioning the "cold cash" in a certain Congressman's freezer (making the story about the warrant served on his office) or about the shady land deals of the current president pro-tem of the Senate.

91 posted on 01/15/2007 10:28:28 PM PST by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: Vicomte13; Jim Robinson
And even if there is a Democratic President and it gets past Congress and the White House, it will be shot stone dead by the Supreme Court. Good luck getting past THAT!

That is almost word for word what I posted to Jim Robinson several years ago when the McCain-Feingold CFR bill was about to be signed by President Bush. Jim replied that he did not trust the Supreme Court. A short time later I had to eat my own words when the Supreme Court voted 5 - 4 to let the bulk of McCain-Feingold stand. Jim had been exactly right.

The point is that this kind of dangerous legislation needs to be stopped dead in its tracks long before it gets to the President's desk. The Supreme Court cannot be trusted. I, and a lot of other people, learned this lesson the hard way. "Fool me once....", etc.

92 posted on 01/15/2007 10:30:18 PM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: Dead Corpse
We won't do that by compromising on our ideals either

There are two kinds of "compromise", one is giving up something you already have, the other is settling for getting less than you want, for now. Reagan practiced the second kind, we must not practice the first.

93 posted on 01/15/2007 10:32:29 PM PST by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: Logophile
he President knows how to veto—he has done it before, I believe

Once in six years. Federal funding for stem cell research. The media, and the Hollywierd elite, used that veto to portray Republicans as right wing religious nut cases that didn't give a hoot about paralyzed folks or people with Parkinson's.

Not that I disagree with the veto.

But package this up and sell it as anti-corruption, Motherhood and Apple pie, and he wont' veto it any more than he vetoed CRF, which was sold as that same bill of goods. The "Moderate Republicans" will advise against such a veto, because it would be used against Republicans in the next election.

94 posted on 01/15/2007 10:38:47 PM PST by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: Jim Robinson
Great idea to let the Democrats take the majority!! That'll teach us all a lesson.
If there is a "good side" in all of this it is that a lot more people are going to become aware of just how bad the Rats really are at heart.
It'll sure be interesting to see how the MSM cover, or don't cover, this.
95 posted on 01/16/2007 2:59:37 AM PST by philman_36
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To: proudofthesouth

I knew it was coming ,this is what you get with the diversity democrats . We are for diversity when you agree with us,otherwise shut up


96 posted on 01/16/2007 3:46:16 AM PST by ballplayer
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To: PSYCHO-FREEP
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.


Like property rights or McCain-Feingold?

The ideal of the SC exists, but whether or not it will triumph in real life is another matter entirely. The last line of defense for Americans in this country has and always will be... Americans. In moments when our government seems bent on utter totalitarianism, our society begins to understand the meaning of freedom in its truest sense... and what it means to lose it. That is why, when liberal democrats speak of socialist garbage like the Fairness Doctrine, we begin to hear whispers of armed uprising to defend our way of life from those who would take it from us.
97 posted on 01/16/2007 5:30:29 AM PST by snowrip (Liberal? YOU HAVE NO RATIONAL ARGUMENT. Actually, you lack even a legitimate excuse.)
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To: Jim Robinson; pieceofthepuzzle; PSYCHO-FREEP; Pharmboy; Prov3456; El Gato
Pelosi wants all "grassroots" organizations that communicate with 500 or more people to register with the Congress, file financials quaterly, and to report separately on each and every issue they advocate. Unions, corporations, etc, exempted, of course.
That's Senate Bill 1. Call your senators and ask them to vote to remove Section 220. (The bill is actually about lobbying reform, but Section 220 tramples free speech.)
. . . except that his senators are Boxer and another Democratic woman, and my senators are Hillary and Chuck. And "actually about lobbying reform" pretty much is "trampling on free speech."
You know what's most important over at the Upper House. Staying in the Upper House of course.
They always have been for free speech...as long as the speech in question recites their talking points. And, they have the cojones to call OUR side of the aisle fascistic.
Some would say that they are for their own free speech because they have "the mainstream media" on their side. I put it differently - in promoting itself, Big Journalism promotes cheap talk, and in promoting themselves Democratic politicians promote cheap talk. By "cheap talk" I mean what Theodore Roosevelt meant when he said, "It is not the critic who counts . . . The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena . . ."

Journalism aspires to predominant influence, and yet journalism doesn't do anything. In order to arrogate to themselves more credit than those who produce and distribute our food, clothing and shelter and those who provide security, journalism criticizes the providers relentlessly - and Big Journalism fights against the freedom to publicize views in opposition to that.

Undoubtedly it would not be well for anyone to be totally immune to criticism, so in that sense people with the motive to nitpick no doubt have a role to play. The great problem is that

  • Journalism has coalesced into Big Journalism - an entity with a single, self-serving viewpoint organized around the sophistry of the claim that Big Journalism provides, and America must have, objective journalism. And,

  • Many people, from the middle class (known as "the poor" but having a standard of living which is the envy of most of the world today and would have been the envy of the rich in 1800) through the strata to the wealthiest, put themselves on the side of Big Journalism and in opposition to those who "are actually in the arena." Even though most of them are themselves "actually in the arena" in some circumstances.
A move by this political force to muzzle opposition is dangerous; up until 1992 it had been forty years since the Republicans had a majority in the House, and sixty years since the Republicans had been politically dominant in the country. But at least it may get the issue of free speech and press back in front of SCOTUS, with Alito and Roberts on the bench in place of O'Connor and Rhenquist (whose 1-1 split allowed McCain to be upheld on a 5-4 vote).
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

"Citizenship in a Republic,"
Theodore Roosevelt,
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

The wisest and most cautious of us all frequently gives credit to stories which he himself is afterwards both ashamed and astonished that he could possibly think of believing . . .
It is acquired wisdom and experience only that teach incredulity, and they very seldom teach it enough. - Adam Smith
Half the truth is often a great lie. - Benjamin Franklin

Why Broadcast Journalism is
Unnecessary and Illegitimate


98 posted on 01/16/2007 5:57:28 AM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion (The idea around which liberalism coheres is that NOTHING actually matters except PR.)
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion

Great post. Thanks.


99 posted on 01/16/2007 6:05:29 AM PST by Pharmboy ([She turned me into a] Newt! in '08)
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To: Jim Robinson

This new congress is and will be a disaster: from regulating free speech to throwing up the surrender flag. And now we have the ultimate control freak, RINO mayor Bloomberg, promoting Charles Rangel as a presidential candidate!


100 posted on 01/16/2007 6:11:58 AM PST by juliej (vote gop)
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