Government control of the internet? Oh, no you don't

By Wes Vernon

Add the free-swinging Internet to President Obama's control-or-destroy targets. That means they are going after you because the Internet is open to everyone. It is the most democratic (with a small "d") of all the media. It's free and open, and the Stalinists in Washington intend to change all that.

Setting the stage

Ever since he assumed the presidency, Barack Obama has pursued every Marxist ruler's ultimate dream — to put the media under his control so as to make them his personal propaganda ministry in everything but name.

We had media that were inching toward that scenario — from roughly the post World War II years until the late eighties, when President Ronald Reagan refused to sign a bill — rammed through Congress — that would have restored the anti-free speech Orwellian-sounding "Fairness Doctrine" which had been struck down by the courts.

Ooops! A "counter-revolution," Comrade!

Not long after that, the half-to-two-thirds of the population who were unimpressed with the high-profile hucksters of "conventional wisdom" finally had access to voices that — with notable exceptions — previously had been barred from all but obscure corners of the public square. And trust me, there were people plotting to marginalize or displace the "notable exceptions."

So now that the media is closer to balance, the administration's appointees aim to control the news through several initiatives, not the least of which is so-called "net neutrality." Like all Orwellian schemes, this one has as its goal the exact opposite of what its name suggests.

The enemies of free speech are placing their friends all throughout this administration. For example:

Enter an acolyte of Marxists

Meet Ben Scott, who has just been named to a State Department position that WND Books defines as "a policy adviser for innovation." In this context, one can suspect that "innovation" is code language for mischief.

WND Books (the publisher of the huge investigative work The Manchurian President) tells us that until now, Ben Scott had been a Policy Director for a George Soros-funded, Marxist-founded organization calling itself Free Press (another group whose name fits the Orwellian strain in nomenclature).

Scott authored a book which was edited by Free Press founder Robert W. McChesney, a University of Illinois professor and former editor of Marxist Journal Monthly Review.

In The Manchurian President, authors Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott write that McChesney has said outright that, "In the end, there is no answer but to remove, brick by brick, the capitalist system itself, rebuilding the entire society on socialist principles."

You are what you advocate?

WND Books cites a "Free Press" study advocating the development of a "world class" government-run media system in the United States. One wonders if, in his State Department job, Mr. Scott intends to spread this idea throughout the world. A government-run media system would appeal to Communist China, for example, which employs fulltime hackers to delete material from the Internet that it does not want to reach its people.

Given his background, Ben Scott would appear to fit the pattern of other Obama appointees unbothered by increasing government control over how the great unwashed derive their understanding of "news" and "information."

Such as Mark Lloyd, Obama's diversity czar inside the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). He has urged committed leftists to harass conservative radio stations by filing complaints with the FCC.

Klein and Elliott also cite White House regulatory czar Cass Sunstein, who wants a "New Deal Fairness Doctrine" to regulate the media. Sunstein "not only argues for bringing socialism to the United States, he even lends support to communism."

To buttress the latter point, the book cites the stated Cold War goals of the Soviet Union — "the right to a job, health care, and a social minimum" — which Sunstein compares to the U.S. goals of "civil and political liberties."

In Sunstein's world, that is what the Cold War was all about. How silly of us to oppose the Soviets when they merely wanted to dominate the world, even if they had to add significantly to communism's more than 100-million dead victims to do it. The miserable wretches at hard labor in the Gulag enjoyed "the right to a job" just like the high-wage factory or office workers in the U.S. So what's all the fuss?

The takeover attempt

By a 3-2 vote, the FCC on June 16 — under the chairmanship of Julius "Caesar" Genachowski — moved the agency toward the power to regulate the transmission component of broadband Internet service. Genachowski — Obama's Harvard law classmate — thus sets the table for regulating the Internet under rules that were written for the telephone company in the thirties.

It was a straight party-line vote. Dissenting Republican Commissioner Meredith Atwell Baker said the proposal "will place the heavy thumb of government on the scale of a free market to the point where innovation and investment in the 'core' of the Internet are subjected to the whims of 'Mother-May-I' regulators."

Sound familiar?

Recalling how the act-alike, think-alike, do-alike media used to dominate before the "Fairness" Doctrine was scrapped, such heavy-handedness by a federal agency is nothing short of frightening.

Today, more robust debate has better enabled Americans to sass back the liberal establishment. The socialist-communist radicals populating the administration are alarmed at the diversity of voices in today's media. Obama's own media echo chamber is still operating, but that's not good enough for the Stalinists. They consider it their birthright to attain 100% control — most especially to put the impudent Internet upstarts in their place.

This control-freak instinct no doubt meets the approval of left-wing moneybags puppetmaster George Soros, who said — in a similar context when free speech rudely intruded on the media — "I'm going to do something about it."

So here's what you can do

Many Americans who treasure the future of freedom of expression as guaranteed by the First Amendment hopefully will urge their congressmen and senators to do whatever it takes — including possible denial of congressional appropriations for FCC budgets — to block this raw attempt (deceptively labeled "Net Neutrality") to shut down free and open debate.

The Capitol switchboard number is 202-224-3121. Or you can obtain your lawmaker's e-mail and/or snailmail address (usually most effective) on his or her website.

You can also contact the FCC itself at Federal Communications Commission, 445 12th St. SW, Washington, D.C. 20554 — or phone (toll free) 1-888-CALL FCC. (The FCC's e-mail address is on its website, though snailmail is most effective.)

We need not tolerate this attempt to shut us up. And yes, it goes way beyond our humble offering in this Internet column. Couldn't cease writing even if I knew how to stop — but door-to-door has its limits. Paul Revere and his horse were OK prior to the jet age.

This is about you and every other American. The Internet has opened up new vistas to the world of information and expression. Those who recall the bad old days (when government increased its regulation of speech) will decide this is where they came in. Essentially the word is — Oh, no you don't! You're not dragging us back there. Keep your mitts off our Internet. We won't shut up.

© Wes Vernon