Cliff Kincaid at Accuracy in Media has this piece on the Democrat plan to bring back the un-Fairness Doctrine.
Media reform sounds like a good cause. But the gathering here of more than 2,000 activists turned out to be an effort to push the Democratic Party further to the left and get more "progressive" voices in the media, while proposing to use the power of the federal government to silence conservatives.
In short, triumphant liberals now want to consolidate and expand their power.
Several speakers, including Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Maurice Hinchey, declared that they think Congress should use a new federal "fairness doctrine" to target conservative speech on television and radio.
It's normal for the party in power to try to consolidate its power and push its agenda. The problem is that the Democrat agenda is so bad for American values, particularly freedom of speech.
I've stated before that liberals love to talk about free speech but they never back up the words with actions. Whenever there's a chance to muzzle speech, they do (unless it's something pushing one of their own talking points). But while I've talked about it, Kincaid was there, at the National Conference on Media Reform.
Sponsored by Free Press, a Massachusetts-based organization that is generously subsidized by pro-Democratic Party billionaire George Soros, the "National Conference on Media Reform" featured Bill Moyers and Jesse Jackson and Hollywood celebrities such as Danny Glover, Geena Davis and Jane Fonda.
Wow, now that's an evenly divided panel: the left and the far-left.
Soros, of course, is the multimillion-dollar blowhard who made his money through international monetary manipulations and offshore hedge funds. As Kincaid notes, "(h)e was convicted of insider trading in France, one of many countries to have borne the brunt of his global financial schemes."
And in the U.S., we know Soros as the guy who tried to buy the election for the Democrats in 2004.
Now Soros is interested in "reforming" the media. Hell, I'm interested in reforming the media. I want them to stop lying about conservatives. I don't think that's the type of reform Soros wants, though.
Interestingly, Soros was not mentioned as a major sponsor of the forum, but many other lefty organizations were, such as the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Overbrook Foundation, the Quixote Foundation, the Glaser Progress Foundation, and the Haas Trusts. According to Kincaid, promoters of the event include American Prospect magazine, Washington Monthly, The Nation, and MoveOn.org. In other words, it sounds like the same sponsors of every hour of All Things Considered and every primetime show on your local PBS station.
But wait! There's more!
The Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), which opposes the Chinese communist government as too capitalist, was one of the official exhibitors. Also on hand, displaying banners calling for the impeachment of President Bush, was the so-called 9/11 truth movement, which holds that Muslims were blamed for the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and the Pentagon when U.S. officials actually carried them out.
Basically, every moonbat organization on the left supports "reforming" the media. Any guesses what they think talk radio should look like? I'm sure it doesn't include Rush Limbaugh.
Reaching new levels of hysteria, Rep. Maurice Hinchey said the survival of America was itself at stake because "neo-fascist" and "neo-con" talk-show hosts led by Rush Limbaugh had facilitated the "illegal" war in Iraq and were complicit in President Bush's repeated violations of the Constitution, such as by detaining terrorists. He warned that the "right-wing oriented media" were now preparing the way for Bush to wage war on Iran and Syria.
His answer, a bill titled the "Media Ownership Reform Act," would reinstate the federal fairness doctrine and authorize bureaucrats at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to monitor and alter the content of radio and television programs.
Hinchey, chairman of the "Future of American Media Caucus" in the House, was introduced as the new chairman of a subcommittee with jurisdiction over the FCC. For Hinchey and the vast majority at the conference, there was a pressing need for more, not less, regulation of what they call the "corporate media."
With passage of his bill, Hinchey said that "progressives" would be able to demand and get "equal access" to programs hosted by conservatives and rebut the "baloney" of people like Limbaugh. "All of that stuff will end," Hinchey said about the influence of conservative media. By name, he also denounced Fox News and Sinclair Broadcasting.
Hinchey praised Democratic FCC commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, who appeared at the conference, and indicated that with the election of a Democratic President in 2008, the FCC could be openly used to frustrate the growing popularity of conservative ideas, perhaps under the cover of resisting "media consolidation."
Later, Hinchey was seen preparing for an appearance on Air America, which had a make-shift studio set up on the premises of the conference.
Liberals already get their ideas spread on television, both on the news and in the entertainment programs. As I noted in this post, liberals make up the largest number of political bloggers as well. In short, the only outlet that conservatives dominate is talk radio. But having their ideas touted on every other medium around isn't enough, I suppose.
Every time a conservative family group complains about television programming, liberals will spout the line that they should just "change the channel." Why is it that liberals can't just "change the channel" when it comes to talk radio?
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