Well, the Iron Curtain has descended on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Posted on 10/22/2009 6:35:36 AM PDT by rhema
During the Cold War, the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe were among the broadcast entities that effectively penetrated the Iron Curtain to deliver truth to the “captive nations” that were being fed a steady dose of propaganda by their communist rulers. Those dictators did everything they could to “jam” the signals so that their people would only hear what their unelected overseers wanted them to hear. Contemporary versions of jamming and other forms of censorship occur today in Venezuela, Cuba, and many other places where dictators believe public ignorance is essential to their unchallenged rule.
While the Obama administration is the product of an election, its approach to the Fox News Channel, conservative talk radio, and possibly the internet appears similar to dictators who desire control over the flow of information in order to enhance their power.
The administration’s primary beef appears to be that Fox is doing the job the broadcast networks and big newspapers should be doing were they not still deeply in the tank for this president and his policies.
Like those Cold War truth-tellers, Fox is simply delivering information to a rapidly growing audience (partly due to criticism from the White House) that wants to see and hear what the other media are not telling them. Fox—and talk radio—are reporting on the backgrounds and statements of Obama administration officials. Fox didn’t create the statements and actions of Van Jones, the now former “energy czar,” who signed a petition questioning whether Bush administration officials allowed 9/11 to happen as a possible pretext for going to war. Fox didn’t force Jones to advocate for cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, or associate himself with Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), a left-wing radical group with Marxist roots.
No Fox News employee wrote the speeches and comments of White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, who told graduating high school seniors that one of her “favorite philosophers” is the mass murderer Mao Zedong. Neither did they compose her boast during the campaign that the Obama people “controlled” the news media.
ACORN might never have been exposed for its possibly illegal activities had not an enterprising young duo gone to their offices with a hidden camera and recorded some ACORN workers who were happy to assist them in breaking the law.
As one who appears on Fox as a contributor, I have seen the network grow from its beginning more than a decade ago to its current position of holding accountable those in power. That was once the calling of all journalists until the Kennedy years when reporters started cheerleading and socializing with the people they were empowered to question and cover. This shift in responsibility has greatly enhanced the status and income of too many journalists and commentators. It has also shortchanged the profession and the public it is supposed to serve.
It is no mystery why the White House has made Fox News a target. If its reporting and commentating were not effective in exposing things the administration does not want the public to know, Fox would be ignored. But it is increasingly effective because the public is sensing that the administration has a lot to hide about its personnel, ideology, and objectives.
Rather than boycott Fox—if the administration were smart—it would flood the network with its spokespeople. The administration apparently believes it needs an enemy to avert scrutiny from its socialist agenda, the undermining of free speech, and the corruption of the U.S. Constitution. Because Republicans have no credible national leader, the administration has settled on Fox News.
Political leaders, going back to our founding, have criticized the press. It never works, because after the politicians leave office, the press remains. If the administration is seeking approval for its policies, it should go on the only channel that will confront, examine, and question those policies. If the policies are valid, they will stand; if not, they won’t and they shouldn’t. But perhaps, like those dictators, the administration would rather jam Fox’s “signal” because they don’t want the public to know the truth about what they are doing.
bookmark
I would hope that Fox has plans in place to fight Obama when he tries to cancel their FCC license.
Excellent article!
Tell it like it is Cal!!
Pretty soon Fox News is going to have to move to Cuba and try to broadcast their signal into America.
Excellent points Cal. I have urged everyone I know to watch Fox for the real truth.
BO and his thugs are a real threat to our country and while I agree with Rush, Sean, Beck and anyone else who is speaking up - I contend the time for talk is over. It’s time for action. I’m old enough to remember “tent city” in D.C. for civil rights. It was orderly and effective. 9/12 has proved concerned Americans will act and converge on D.C. with our “Can you hear us now?” message. I say it’s time for a orderly sit-in to show we’re mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore.
“The whole point of Oath Keepers is to stop a dictatorship from ever happening here,” says founding father Stewart Rhodes, an ex-Army paratrooper and Yale-trained lawyer.”
“My focus is on the guys with the guns, because they can’t do it without them.”
“We say if the American people decide it’s time for a revolution, we’ll fight with you.”
dittos
Our two bit tin pot wanna bee Oba-Mao would have a lot more success in Kenya with the shoeless uneducated natives.
Would-be dictators really don't like it when their invalid policies don't stand, such as the attempted coup by Honduran ex-president Manuel Zelaya, and so why should they subject themselves to that risk?
“I would hope that Fox has plans in place to fight Obama when he tries to cancel their FCC license.”
If that were to happen, we should be in that fight as well. That would be the signal that the Constitutional Republic is over.
a secret army of Rush Pirates sprouting up across the fruited plain... (perhaps they will be Fox Pirates as well....)
I would love to see Obama try and cancel Fox’s FCC license. Bring it on Odorkmeister!
I can just imagine Fox has to relocate to Canada, Obama authorizes hundreds of radio and television jamming sites to be erected along the border.
And the 21st century version of a Berlin Wall is built upon the Canadian border.
That's says it all. If they disagree with anything FNC is reporting, then refute it. The fact that the Bamster is whining like a schoolgirl about Fox, shows they're hitting the truth.
Bingo
When will anyone challenge the unconstitutionality of this administration? You know, things like free speech, right to bear arms, etc. When Bush was in office, Dems filed law suits all the time. Republican balls are still in a lockbox somewhere.
Stalin, Hitler, Mao and now Obama
Fox—and talk radio—are reporting on the backgrounds and statements of Obama administration officials.
Fox didn’t create the statements and actions of Van Jones, the now former “energy czar,” who signed a petition questioning whether Bush administration officials allowed 9/11 to happen as a possible pretext for going to war.
Fox didn’t force Jones to advocate for cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, or associate himself with Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), a left-wing radical group with Marxist roots.
No Fox News employee wrote the speeches and comments of White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, who told graduating high school seniors that one of her “favorite philosophers” is the mass murderer Mao Zedong.
Neither did they compose her boast during the campaign that the Obama people “controlled” the news media.
ACORN might never have been exposed for its possibly illegal activities had not an enterprising young duo gone to their offices with a hidden camera and recorded some ACORN workers who were happy to assist them in breaking the law.
Excellent article!
Ping
What exactly is there to challenge? Much is looming, but little offensive has happened (save for gross overspending). You can still publish what you like, buy what arms you like*, etc. Certainly use that approach when it’s time, but so far we only face threat of oppression, not actual.
(* - only post-’86 MGs are verboten, an RKBA travesty but signed by Reagan and unopposed for a quarter-century.)
I used to listen to short wave radio in the late 60’s early 70’s with my dad. We would dial in VOA and Radio free America. But along the bands, there was electronic noise on certain frequencies. Those were the radio frequencies that were being used in eastern europe and in the soviet states. At the time, I thought that was really evil, jamming radio frequencies to keep their people in the dark. I never thought that this sort of thing could happen here. ozero makes me think differently.
Man, what doom and gloom! So are you gloomers just going to stand around when nobama starts closing down FNC and let it happen?
There is still a whole long process nobama would have to go through to close down FNC or any other Constitutionally protected activity, ending up at the SCOTUS (which the left does not yet control).
The Obama administration will do everything it can to muzzle talk radio and Fox news and some FCC dictat regarding diversity or local interest will likely be tried as a weapon on dissent. Fortunately Fox news and others will fight this assault on free speech. Similarly the “net neutrality” bill moving through Congress and new emergency powers will be used to shut off conservative blogs. By 2012 I expect an Obama curtain will cause us to be getting uncensored news by shortwave from foreign countries.
It seems the liberals got quite far by claiming all sorts of freedoms were in jeopardy, so they flaunted those freedoms, pushed them to the limit in order to force a reaction from what they deemed the "opposition". The result was (in most cases)that the administration would say, "aren't our freedoms wonderful!" I'm sure that disappointed the liberals, because what they wanted and expected was some kind of repressive backlash.
Nowadays, we're beginning to see that backlash - beginning, mind you. If we don't exercise our freedoms regularly and sometimes to the point of being an irritant about it, we will surely lose them. Likewise, if we continue to declare our God-given freedoms, claim them every day, the current administration may be less tolerant than its predecessors. Better we find out now than later.
Freedoms must be reaffirmed and defended continually, otherwise they will indeed be slipped away from us little by little.
PING!
Insightful.
“The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is the natural fertilizer” Thomas Jefferson to James Madison in a letter 30 January 1787.
Well, the Iron Curtain has descended on Pennsylvania Avenue.
BuahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahA!
They couuldn;t answer the real questions they would be asked without lying, and they would be caught in an ever expandinngspiral of lies.
That is why they will not and cannot send "spokespersons" to Fox.
Interesting that obama met with MSNBC, Oberman and Maddow today.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2368790/posts
The good news is that the high tech is beating any efforts for the Obama White House to try to stop.
....Or we could be in a bloody blowback to fight for freedom.
Revolution just around the corner.
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