I’ve resisted the strong temptation to stick up for my friend and colleague Rush Limbaugh as he is attacked by Democratic members of Congress.
Rush is a big boy. He’s got plenty of clout and a large megaphone. He can take care of himself.
In fact, from my vantage point, he is making monkeys of Harry Reid and the Senate 41 who signed their names to a letter designed to intimidate Clear Channel, the network that carries the largest talk show in America.
But writing about this controversy I am. It’s not Rush who needs defending. It’s the First Amendment.
What we are witnessing in this matter is another shot across the bow by an arrogant group of petty, wannabe tyrants who would, if they could, use the coercive power of the state to stifle all dissenting views.
They would do it under the rubric of “hate speech” legislation. They would do it with the rationalization of “fairness” and “accuracy” – two attributes they wouldn’t know if they tripped over them. They would do it in the name of campaign finance reform. In fact, they would do it without any excuse whatsoever.
I’m not going to bother explaining how Reid and his accomplices are smearing Rush and accusing him of saying things he never said. No one can explain it better than Rush himself. After all, it’s not a matter of opinion what he said. His words are heard by millions. There are recordings, transcripts. Nevertheless, to show you the kind of people we’re dealing with in Reid and his henchmen and henchwomen, they feel perfectly at liberty lying about what the biggest star in talk radio said and what he meant.
On one level, it’s all so ridiculous.
But, on another level, Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton and the rest of the Senate 41 are doing us all a favor.
They are tipping their hand. They are showing us the future under their rule. They are telling us what they are going to do.
They are going to declare war on the First Amendment. To them, the First Amendment doesn’t actually protect the inalienable right to free speech and the free press. It only protects their speech and their press. They want a monopoly on media. They had it once and they got spoiled. They decided they can’t live without it any more.
So, here’s the plan: Come January 2009, if Hillary Clinton is in the White House and Harry Reid is still running the Senate and Nancy Pelosi is still cleaning the House, they are going to pass a law bringing back the so-called “Fairness Doctrine.”
How draconian would that be?
Would it really make a difference on our media landscape today?
Could they really “Hush Rush”?
In 1987, President Ronald Reagan single-handedly killed the “Fairness Doctrine,” which, in theory, mandates a balance of opposing views on radio and television airwaves, but, in reality, meant politicians and the government meddling in broadcast programming, resulting in bland, non-controversial shows and the near-death experience of AM radio. At that time, there were 75 radio talk shows in all of these United States. Today, there are over 3,000.
We had an explosion of voices and a livelier and freer debate than ever before as a result of the Fairness Doctrine being eliminated.
Reid and Clinton know that, too. And that’s why high on their agenda in 2009 is to bring it back.
They don’t want debate. They don’t want a multitude of voices. They don’t want watchdogs. They don’t want a thousand flowers to bloom, as their buddy Mao once promised. They want control. They want the media to dance to their tune. They want media lapdogs.
And that’s what they’ll get when they bring back the Fairness Doctrine.
I know it only applies to broadcast, and we now have the Internet and satellite radio and cable TV, etc., etc. Let me explain this to you: If they are successful at sacking talk radio, there will be no stopping them. These are people who actually believe in hate-speech laws. They will be coming after all their enemies – just as they did in the 1990s. There will be no place to hide.
Am I scared? Am I panicking? Am I freaking out? No. I’m just telling it like it is. I’m prepared. I’m expecting it. I’m ready to do battle just like we did in the old days of the previous Clinton administration.
I just thought you should know what I know.
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