31 October 2008

More Free Speech Issues

  1. Obama boots opposition reporters from plane
    Hmm... yeah, that shows a willingness to "reach across the aisle"... not to mention a receptive attitude to different ideas from our "open-minded" candidate. Previous, SECOND shut-down effort on radio station hosting opposition here. And then there are his "truth squads."
  2. Fairness Doctrine explained at Mormanity (and parallel drawn to religious freedom)
    Shows that - like most fascist schemes - it's not about "fairness" so much as shutting down opposition. From the article quoted in the article (in the house that Jack built):
    As Bill Ruder, an assistant secretary of commerce under President Kennedy, noted, "Our massive strategy was to use the Fairness Doctrine to challenge and harass right-wing broadcasters in the hope that the challenges would be so costly to them that they would be inhibited and decide it was too expensive to continue."
We're going to need to fight loud and hard if Obama gains the presidency, especially if Congress has a liberal supermajority. Political correctness eroded the foundation of free speech, and now this "outlaw speech" idea is being extended to attack and quash simple dissent.

Dissent - free political discourse - is what "free speech" in the First Amendment is really about; and if we lose our First Amendment rights, all others will follow.

1 comment:

Happy Thought, Indeed! said...

I was listening to NPR, an interview with a woman whose husband had died in Iraq as an American Soldier. She was asked about how she felt when the Iraq war became so unpopular, and was being criticized by so many. She said that her husband's favorite quote was, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" (frequently attributed to Voltaire, but not actually said by him), and this is what helps her to endure the loss of her husband, and the slights made against him.

I fear you are right, that Obama will not extend the same consideration for any who disagree with him. And unfortunately, he already appears to have the msm safely in the palm of his hand--just the beginning of his very own propaganda machine.