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The Left Tries to Muzzle Free Speech
Accuracy In Media (Aim.org) ^ | February 10, 2006 | Roger Aronoff

Posted on 02/10/2006 12:04:45 AM PST by Arnold Zephel

The Left Tries to Muzzle Free Speech

By Roger Aronoff | February 10, 2006

George Clooney has talked about returning to the days when everyone had the same "fact level." By that, he means he wants to return to the "good old days," as he sees them, when "The News" was a neat package presented from on high by Walter Cronkite, who fed us the liberal line and disguised it as the only version of the news worth hearing and objective truth.....

Realizing they are losing influence and are on the defensive, liberals are moving to re-establish the Fairness Doctrine, a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule that required broadcasters to offer equal time to opposing views of those expressed on the airwaves......

Indeed, the dumping of the Fairness Doctrine led to the boom in talk-radio, which preceded the Internet, the Blogosphere, and the success of Fox News......

Anderson also explores the move to restrict speech, including talk-radio, perhaps Fox News, and even the Internet, by talking about "fairness," whether as part of the Fairness Doctrine, or by utilizing the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) to determine what writings on the Internet might unfairly benefit one politician over another......

To demonstrate how real this is, Democrats introduced two bills in Congress last year to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. Louise Slaughter of New York state, who introduced one of the bills, said that "Fairness isn't going to hurt anyone," while she blasted conservative talk-radio and cable TV, calling them "a waste of good broadcast time, and a waste of our airwaves.".....

The effort to regulate the flow of information is under way. In this case, liberals are trying to muzzle conservatives. The liberals are not so liberal when it comes to allowing views that trump their own.

(Excerpt) Read more at aim.org ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Philosophy; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: censorship; fairnessdoctrine; mediabias; msm; rats; talkradio
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Mark my words, if another democRAT is elected President, or democRATS win back a majority in congress, the re-establishment of the fairness doctrine will be at the top of their agenda.
1 posted on 02/10/2006 12:04:47 AM PST by Arnold Zephel
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To: Arnold Zephel
liberals are moving to re-establish the Fairness Doctrine . . In other words.....Stalinism.
2 posted on 02/10/2006 12:07:40 AM PST by Falcon28
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To: Arnold Zephel

I thought that McCain-Feingold already muzzled us more than enough ... jeesh!


3 posted on 02/10/2006 12:08:18 AM PST by pediatricsman
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To: Arnold Zephel

I have said that it is one of the first things Hillary would do. She wouldn't wait for Congress. If she issued such an outrageous executive order, what would anyone do about it? Who would impeach her? The answer is nobody. It really would be power as we have never before seen.


4 posted on 02/10/2006 12:08:40 AM PST by doug from upland (A dead body means one more chance for Democrats to have another funeral-op)
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To: doug from upland

What is Rush's audience, 13 million?

and all Slaughter can say is..."what a waste"

is that all they got?


5 posted on 02/10/2006 12:11:18 AM PST by Falcon28
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To: Falcon28

"a waste of airwaves" ???????

I don't even know what that means.

Then what is NPR...."worthy of airwaves"


the lunatic fringe


6 posted on 02/10/2006 12:12:58 AM PST by Falcon28
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To: doug from upland
[SARCASM]
But she would be doing it for the children. The Internet and talk radio is full of intolerance, homophobia, racism, bigotry, (insert banal liberal phrases here), etc.
[/SARCASM]
7 posted on 02/10/2006 12:18:55 AM PST by Arnold Zephel
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To: Arnold Zephel
The same "fact level" means we're all hearing the same things from the same people, and the political discussion is based on what those who control the media allow us to know.

CBS memos...Lewinsky coverup...SWIFT boat vets...Barrett report...

It's not only the large stories. The internet's constant hunger for material means so many smaller stories are posted. People who homeschool are in contact with others in different states, for example.

Clooney really is a dolt. He is one of these libs who believes there is The Truth that only liberal-educated liberals can discern, and we can't let those, those...people aka EVRYONE have access to the tools of knowledge distribution.

Beacause as he knows so well, knowledge = power. Political power.

8 posted on 02/10/2006 12:27:51 AM PST by Darkwolf377
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To: Arnold Zephel

"It is our responsibility (as celebrities) to read things in newspapers, then repeat them on TV, like we thought of them ourselves!" -- The Janeane Garafalo puppet in "Team America"


9 posted on 02/10/2006 1:42:46 AM PST by HHFi
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To: Arnold Zephel
The Left Tries to Muzzle Free Speech

The Sun Rises in the East and Sets in the West.

10 posted on 02/10/2006 1:45:26 AM PST by Allegra (Suffering from a Malady Known as "Troll Fatigue")
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To: Arnold Zephel

The fascist Left lead by Hillary.
LIberalism always generates the exact opposite of its stated intent.


11 posted on 02/10/2006 1:54:50 AM PST by oneofmany (The first amendment was, in part, a federalism provision.)
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12 posted on 02/10/2006 1:59:40 AM PST by devolve (<-- (-in a manner reminiscent of Senator Gasbag F. Kohnman-)
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To: Falcon28; Arnold Zephel
..if another democRAT is elected President (esp. sHrILLARY), or democRATS win back a majority in congress, the re-establishment of the fairness doctrine will be at the top of their agenda...In other words.....Stalinism...Indeed. :^/
13 posted on 02/10/2006 2:32:28 AM PST by skinkinthegrass (Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you :^)
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To: HHFi
"It is our responsibility (as celebrities) to read things in newspapers, then repeat them on TV, like we thought of them ourselves!" -- The Janeane Garafalo puppet in "Team America"...LOL! Good Catch. :D
14 posted on 02/10/2006 2:35:52 AM PST by skinkinthegrass (Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you :^)
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To: Arnold Zephel

If current trends continue, the media landscape will be completely unrecognizable by 2012. The only hope the MSM has is to elect Democrats, restore the Fairness Doctrine and use campaign finance laws and hate speech laws to throttle the Internet. That's why the '08 election will be the dirtiest in our lifetime. It's their last hurrah and they will pull out all the stops. If you think they were partisan in 2004, well, you ain't seen nothing yet.


15 posted on 02/10/2006 2:41:41 AM PST by jalisco555 ("Dogs look up to us, cats look down on us and pigs treat us as equals" Winston Churchill)
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To: doug from upland
"If she issued such an outrageous executive order, what would anyone do about it? Who would impeach her?"

I hope a good portion of the American people would ... through force ... like a million or 2 armed citizens march and burn DC to the ground and string up her and other tyrant wanna-be's from lamp posts. What a site that would be. What is that saying ... the Tree of Liberty needs to be periodically watered with the blood of patriots.
16 posted on 02/10/2006 3:09:34 AM PST by MaDeuce (Do it to them, before they do it to you!)
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To: Arnold Zephel
Studies galore have found little or no significant influence of campaign contributions on legislators' votes.

If a commodity (in this case campaign money) is scarce those who need it will go to great lengths, even to the point of doing objectionable acts, to acquire it. When a commodity is in abundance people do not need to do objectionable things to acquire it.

By making campaign money harder to come by corruption becomes more likely not less likely. Allow any legal person or entity to donate as much as they like and make it public. Politicians can then choose which donors they are willing to associate with.

17 posted on 02/10/2006 3:20:39 AM PST by Straight Vermonter (John 6: 31-69)
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To: Arnold Zephel

so they're gonna shut down ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN etc...??? Sounds like a plan!


18 posted on 02/10/2006 4:32:08 AM PST by Palpatine (Every single liberal is now an enemy of the republic!)
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To: Palpatine

Even now, there is too much of two sides' of talkikng points to everything and not enough search for truth.


19 posted on 02/10/2006 4:49:25 AM PST by ClaireSolt (.)
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To: doug from upland
If she issued such an outrageous executive order, what would anyone do about it?

The broadcasters would refuse to obey and take it to federal court, most likely. Congress wouldn't do squat either way.

20 posted on 02/10/2006 4:52:08 AM PST by kevkrom ("...no one has ever successfully waged a war against stupidity" - Orson Scott Card)
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