Warner Todd Huston
Want proof of how Democrats would shut you up, tea partiers?
By Warner Todd Huston
On MSNBC, John Kerry told us that Tea Party ideas are not "real" ideas, not "factual," and thinks that the media should stop reporting on anything that smacks of ideas or news coming from Tea Partiers. If this isn't proof of how Democrats and leftists would use the power of government to quash free political speech, what is?
Not long ago, several Democrats tried to once again raise the ugly head of the defunct Fairness Doctrine that was killed during the Reagan administration in order to limit the free political speech of conservatives. In those dark days when Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House of Representatives, several Republicans talked about forever outlawing the anti-free speech rule. Democrats at the time spoke up in favor of the Fairness Doctrine and countered that they wanted to bring it back.
Fortunately, the Fairness Doctrine has not come back. But this un-American policy idea has been talked about by leftists every few years since it was torpedoed by Reagan in 1987. They would love to bring it back. And despite what they claim, the left would use a new Fairness Doctrine to squelch the free political speech of those on the right.
Want proof? Then let's look at what Democrat Senator John Kerry said on MSNBC this week.
The media, Kerry said, "has got to begin to not give equal time or equal balance." This means he thinks any ideas that don't toe the far left, liberal Democrat ideological line should be excluded from reportage, eliminated from the public debate.
Now, imagine what he'd do if he had the power of a renewed Fairness Doctrine under his control? Imagine if he had the power of law behind his claims.
If John Kerry and his comrades on the far left had their way, they'd use the force of law to shut you up, Tea Partiers. The left would not use the Fairness Doctrine for anything "fair." They'd use it as a but another Alien and Sedition Act to shut down the access to the public square now enjoyed by conservative ideas.
Talk radio, cable TV, newspapers, magazines, the Internet all would be targeted for Kremlin-like control of their contents by Washington D.C. if the left had its way.
In fact, speaking of the Internet, there is a new stealth Fairness Doctrine in the works. It's called Net Neutrality, just another way for the left to impose state control of the news.
© Warner Todd Huston
August 8, 2011
On MSNBC, John Kerry told us that Tea Party ideas are not "real" ideas, not "factual," and thinks that the media should stop reporting on anything that smacks of ideas or news coming from Tea Partiers. If this isn't proof of how Democrats and leftists would use the power of government to quash free political speech, what is?
Not long ago, several Democrats tried to once again raise the ugly head of the defunct Fairness Doctrine that was killed during the Reagan administration in order to limit the free political speech of conservatives. In those dark days when Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House of Representatives, several Republicans talked about forever outlawing the anti-free speech rule. Democrats at the time spoke up in favor of the Fairness Doctrine and countered that they wanted to bring it back.
Fortunately, the Fairness Doctrine has not come back. But this un-American policy idea has been talked about by leftists every few years since it was torpedoed by Reagan in 1987. They would love to bring it back. And despite what they claim, the left would use a new Fairness Doctrine to squelch the free political speech of those on the right.
Want proof? Then let's look at what Democrat Senator John Kerry said on MSNBC this week.
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SEN. JOHN KERRY: And I have to tell you, I say this to you politely. The media in America has a bigger responsibility than it's exercising today. The media has got to begin to not give equal time or equal balance to an absolutely absurd notion just because somebody asserts it or simply because somebody says something which everybody knows is not factual.
It doesn't deserve the same credit as a legitimate idea about what you do. And the problem is everything is put into this tit-for-tat equal battle and America is losing any sense of what's real, of who's accountable, of who is not accountable, of who's real, who isn't, who's serious, who isn't?
The media, Kerry said, "has got to begin to not give equal time or equal balance." This means he thinks any ideas that don't toe the far left, liberal Democrat ideological line should be excluded from reportage, eliminated from the public debate.
Now, imagine what he'd do if he had the power of a renewed Fairness Doctrine under his control? Imagine if he had the power of law behind his claims.
If John Kerry and his comrades on the far left had their way, they'd use the force of law to shut you up, Tea Partiers. The left would not use the Fairness Doctrine for anything "fair." They'd use it as a but another Alien and Sedition Act to shut down the access to the public square now enjoyed by conservative ideas.
Talk radio, cable TV, newspapers, magazines, the Internet all would be targeted for Kremlin-like control of their contents by Washington D.C. if the left had its way.
In fact, speaking of the Internet, there is a new stealth Fairness Doctrine in the works. It's called Net Neutrality, just another way for the left to impose state control of the news.
© Warner Todd Huston
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