Posted on 11/16/2008 11:57:23 PM PST by ebiskit
Barack Obama sought to silence his critics during his 2008 campaign. Now, with the ink barely dry on this November's ballots, Obama has begun a war against conservative talk radio. Obama is on record as saying he does not plan an exhumation of the now-dead "Fairness Doctrine". Instead, Obama's attack on free speech will be far less understood by the general public and accordingly, far more dangerous. The late community organizer Saul Alinsky taught his followers to strike hard from an unexpected direction, an approach known asAlinsky jujitsu. Obama himself not only worked as an organizer for an Alinsky offshoot organization, Chicago's Developing Communities Project, but would go on to teach classes in Alinsky's beliefs and methods.
"Alinsky jujitsu" as applied to conservative talk radio means using vague rules already on the books to threaten any station which dares to air conservative programs with the loss of its valuable broadcast license.
Team Obama and the "localism" weapon
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule in question is called "localism." Radio and television stations are required to serve the interests of their local community as a condition of keeping their broadcast licenses.
Obama needs only three votes from the five-member FCC to define localism in such a way that no radio station would dare air any syndicated conservative programming.
Localism is one of the rare issues on which Obama himself has been outspoken.
On September 20, 2007, Obama submitted a pro-localism written statement to an FCC hearing held at the Chicago headquarters of Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.'s Operation Push.
Furthermore, the Obama transition team knows all about the potential of localism as a means of silencing conservative dissent. The head of the Obama transition team is John Podesta, President and CEO of the Center for American Progress.
In 2007, the Center for American Progress issued a report, The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio. This report complained that there was too much conservative talk on the radio because of "the absence of localism in American radio markets" and urged the FCC to "[e]nsure greater local accountability over radio licensing.
Podesta's choice as head of the Federal Communications Commission's transition team is Henry Rivera.
Since 1994, Rivera has been chairman of the Minority Media Telecommunications Council. This organization has specific ideas about localism:
In other words, it would not do for broadcasters to meet with the business leaders whose companies advertise on their station. Broadcasters must reach beyond the business sector and look for leaders in the civic, religious, and non-profit sectors that regularly serve the needs of the community, particularly the needs of minority groups that are typically poorly served by the broadcasting industry as a whole.
Rivera's law firm is also the former home of Kevin Martin, the current FCC chairman. Martin is himself an advocate of more stringent localism requirements.
It was on Martin's watch that on January 24, 2008, the FCC released its proposed localism regulations. According to TVNewsday: "At the NAB radio show two weeks ago, Martin said that he wanted to take action on localism this year and invited broadcasters to negotiate requirements with him."
FCC complaints as politics by other means
Remember that an FCC license is required for any radio or television station to legally operate in the United States. A single complaint from anyone can significantly hinder a station's license renewal process or even cost the station its FCC license entirely.
There have been some attempts to utilize the FCC complaint process for partisan political ends, most memorably in 2004, when Sinclair Broadcasting agreed to air a documentary questioning Senator John Kerry's war record:
Poised to pre-empt programming on its 62 television stations to run a negative documentary about Sen. John Kerry, Sinclair Broadcast Group has come under fire from critics calling it partisan and questioning whether it is failing federal broadcast requirements to reflect local interests.
Members of Congress and independent media groups have questioned the company's willingness to respect "localism," a section of federal law that requires media companies to cover local issues and provide an outlet for local voices.
One group, The Leftcoaster, went further:
But what isn't done a lot which requires the broadcaster to rack up expensive legal fees, is to challenge every one of their affiliates' FCC license renewals as they come up this year and next. ... [T]here still is time to organize and file Petitions or objections by November 1, 2004 for Sinclair stations in North Carolina and South Carolina, and for Florida by January 1, 2005.
More recently, the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium issued a "fill in the blanks" official FCC complaint form which begins "Anything that you feel is offensive is worth reporting."
Community advisory boards as permanent complaint departments
These random efforts could be far more effective at silencing conservatives if they could only be systematized and institutionalized. That is exactly what the FCC proposed on January 24th. Every radio and television station would be required to create:
[P]ermanent advisory boards comprised of local officials and other community leaders, to periodically advise them of local needs and issues, and seek comment on the matter. ...
To ensure that these discussions include representatives of all community elements, these boards would be made up of leaders of various segments of the community, including underserved groups.
The "community advisory board as permanent complaint department" model may well be based upon the 1995 revisions of the Community Reinvestment Act, as described by Howard Husock in City Journal:
[T]the new CRA regulations also instructed bank examiners to take into account how well banks responded to complaints. ... [F]or advocacy groups that were in the complaint business, the Clinton administration regulations offered a formal invitation. ...
By intervening-even just threatening to intervene-in the CRA review process, left-wing nonprofit groups have been able to gain control over eye-popping pools of bank capital, which they in turn parcel out to individual low-income mortgage seekers. A radical group called ACORN Housing has a $760 million commitment from the Bank of New York...[emphasis in original].
Understand that even allowing conservatives to be radio talk show guests may provoke a FCC licensing complaint. Just ask "right wing hatchet man" Stanley Kurtz.
For Obama, when it comes to radio talk, silence is golden, at least when it comes to conservatives.
Can localism be stopped?
FCC observers agree that the outpouring of complaints from groups like the National Religious Broadcasters during the original comment period helped delay matters.
However, Kevin Martin's determination to enact a localism regulation has led him to ask the broadcast industry to accept a voluntary standard that the FCC would then enact. If industry failed to agree now, Martin warned, "a future FCC may be less willing to compromise than the current one."
This scare tactic -- agree to our demands today or suffer dire consequences tomorrow -- is having an impact.
What broadcasters need to do: speak up now
Radio and television station owners need to become engaged in the localism issue and then take the time to educate their own Congressman and Senators about the dangers of the FCC's proposals.
If broadcasters get involved, it just may be possible to block implementation of any localism rules during the few months remaining of the Bush Administration.
This delay is critical, since once it is the Obama Administration leading the fight for rules which would shut down conservative talk radio, Republican Congressmen and Senators will find it easier to fight back.
The Senate needs to draw a line in the sand: free speech, not localism
While President Obama will have the authority to name Commissioners as their terms end, these nominations must be confirmed by the Senate.
A few pointed questions on localism to FCC nominees during their confirmation hearings would be useful. A filibuster of any and all pro-localism FCC nominees would be even better.
Any Senator leading such a filibuster would earn the gratitude of millions of fans of talk radio as well as everyone who believes in free speech..
Jim Boulet, Jr. is the founder of the anti-localism web site, KeepRushontheAir.com. Research assistance for this article was provided by Richard Falknor of Blue Ridge Forum.
Alien abduction is an idea—would Mexico like to have him? I don’t know what Rush means. If the Court finds him invalid, he can’t be sworn in. Wouldn’t that be like being a little bit pregnant?
If Delay were lower profile he could be the next Atwater. He’s partisan without apology. I bet, however, he knows someone who’d fit the bill.
Newt should not be part of the apparatus but providing ideas to the movement.
Bring it on Rats , Oh I mean King ...
BTTT!!!!
“localism”??? sounds similar to the rule on defining what is pornographic.
Why don’t they just label someone independent, republican, democrat or whatever they claim to be so the people who are too silly to know the difference will know like someone suggested on this board a few weeks ago and get over it and move on. Any limitations on freedom of speech are bad. Freedom of speech and to address our grievances with the government is what makes us American makes us stable unlike other countries. This proposal sounds so Rwanda like with their radio stations in the genocide.
Your comments about “AP” objective reporting is right on. In that regard, the AP has recently, in time for this election, come out saying that they will no longer simply report the news, but also analysis, hence the even MORE incredibly biased AP reporting of the last year.
You are right about the Supreme Court needing to hear this. The First AMendment does NOT demand objective reporting...it demands the rights of a FREE press, hence Rush and others (even liberals) can not be censored. The actions of the FCC under Obama, if as indicated, will lead to censorship...we see that in fact it did so. Tying the whole mess to McCain Feingold is brilliant and should be done immediately. When the liberal justices start to retire, we’re sunk
John has a long mustache
Depending on how he gets the FCC to (re)define "serving the local community's interests", he just might succeed.
Take away the first amendment,,, we can always go to the 2nd one,,, yeahhh,,,for real.
I agree. If the DNC ran Hussein without him being qualified to run, and based on a lie, I would hope the party would have to forfeit the election. And I don’t care if they whine, “Weee didn’t knooooow” he isn’t a citizen; ignorance of the law is no excuse.
What were Mastiffs bred for? Work of any special kind?
bttt
This is a very important post. Going to the source to find those links is too much for some folks. It may have been bettter if you just excerpted it like at this link:
The world has never seen such freezing heat more fraud from NASA's Dr James Hansen
Or you can learn to post articles that includes the HTML code for their links, italics, bolded statements, blockquotes, etc. like this:
The Soros Connection in the Minnesota Senate Race Vote Count
The easiest way is to click on the "printer friendly" link, if the source has one, usually located next to the email link. At some sources, the "Print Article" link only is good for printing a hard copy. That's not true at American Thinker, but you can learn how to scan the source code to find the section of text and HTML commands that you want to copy.
When you have a "printer friendly" link, just left click on it. Then you right click on it. You'll get a menu selection with one entry that says something like View Source. Click on that. That's the source code in a new window. My new window is called printpage[1] - Notepad. I ignore all the HTML formating commands. I just scroll down to where you see the text begins. I select and copy from there down. It will include all the HTML commands for links, images, etc. You just have to inspect it to make sure you don't have what are called relative links, i.e. incomplete URL addresses for links and images. Here's almost an example of what they look like because in HTML if you don't separate the a letter or / symbol from < and > signs, the code disappears. Here's a relative link:
< a href="/2008/01/obamas_alinsky_jujitsu.html">Alinsky jujitsu< /a>
You have to add the URL for "home" for the website, in this case for American Thinker:
http://www.americanthinker.com
Then you have what's called an absolute link that looks like this:
< a href="http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/01/obamas_alinsky_jujitsu.html">Alinsky jujitsu< /a>
Just remember to close those spaces that I inserted to show you what these commands almost look like. If I just confused you, check the HTML Sandbox 2008
It worked on Television.
Why not radio?
I guess it’s going to be a good idea to start trading email addresses with all your favorite FReeper FRiends.
You read this yet?
later
Saul Alinsky, who died in 1972, at the age of 63, was a Chicago Marxist. Among his many books was one titled “Rules for Radicals,” in which he explained to his acolytes, “The most effective means are whatever will achieve the desired results.” It took Alinsky 11 words to paraphrase Karl Marx’s far more succinct “The ends justify the means.”
Alinsky, by the way, dedicated that particular book to Lucifer, whom he coyly referred to as “the first radical.”
More here:
>> “Obama Declares War on Conservative Talk Radio”
Politically, the “War” would not benefit the whole of the Democrat party.
“When good people get into trouble because they are attacked and heavily smitten by the vile and the wicked, they must be very careful not to get at loggerheads with one another. The common enemy is always trying to bring this about, and of course in bad luck a lot of things happen which play into the enemy’s hands. We must just make the best of things as they come along.
...
Good night then: Sleep to gather strength for the morning. For the morning will come. Brightly it will shine on the brave and true, kindly upon all who suffer for the cause, glorious upon the tombs of heroes. Thus will shine the dawn.” Churchill, 21 Oct, 1940
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