Censorship Anyone? Introducing the Thought Police

I don't really think that it's healthy to get as mad as I do about things. Injustice, hypocrisy, blatant lies and personal attacks on those exercising their constitutional liberties really, really get my dander up.

We've heard much ado about the Fairness Doctrine over the past year or so. Fred Thompson speaks out against this intrusive governmental policy being implemented again:

High Praise in The American Thinker
Fairness Doctrine Makes No Sense in Today’s World
Posted on October 8th, 2007
By Fred in Individual Liberty, Commentaries

[NOTE: The American Spectator reports this chilling news:

Rep. Henry Waxman has asked his investigative staff to begin compiling reports on Limbaugh, and fellow radio hosts Sean Hannity and Mark Levin based on transcripts from their shows, and to call in Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin to discuss the so-called “Fairness Doctrine.”

“Limbaugh isn’t the only one who needs to be made uncomfortable about what he says on the radio,” says a House leadership source. “We don’t have as big a megaphone as these guys, but this all political, and we’ll do what we can to gain the advantage. If we can take them off their game for a while, it will help our folks out there on the campaign trail.”

This news about Democrats trampling on the First Amendment for political purposes ties into Fred’s latest commentary. –Sean]

Whether it’s the situation in Iraq, talking about the economy, or the culture, conservatives and like-minded people are putting up a fight on TV, radio and alternative forms of media, and challenging what Democrats and some in the mainstream media would like to set as conventional wisdom. So – big surprise – Democrats are crying foul and are literally trying to change the rules. The latest example of this is Democrat attempts to pull the Fairness Doctrine out of the dustbin of history.

The Fairness Doctrine is an artifact from the days when there were only a handful of television channels and radio stations on our dials. Then, there might have been something to the fear that somebody might get control of all the media outlets in an area — so equal time rules were put in place.

As television and radio stations increased, it became clear that the rule was a bust. Instead of protecting free speech, it imposed costs on broadcasters that killed political discussion entirely. Why run the risk of dealing with anything controversial and having the regulators and the lawyers come down on you? Instead of talking about issues, news directors used stopwatches to measure candidates’ airtime.

Finally, in 1987, the Federal Communications Commission ended the antiquated policy. Today, with more cable, satellite, and local access TV channels than anybody can keep track of — the equal time rule makes even less sense. Throw in the Internet, podcasts, and satellite radio, and it’s absurd.

(...)

Insiders say it was the collapse of the radio station “Air America” that led to this attempt to retool the Fairness Doctrine as a form of de facto censorship. I guess the idea is that, if you can’t compete in the world of ideas, you pass a law that forces radio stations to air your views. In effect, it would force a lot of radio stations to drop some talk show hosts — because they would lose money providing equal airtime to people who can’t attract a market or advertisers.

(...)

Now congressional leaders say they want to “level the playing field” there too – meaning they want to diminish the importance of conservative talk radio. In other words, they don’t trust the results of freedom and the marketplace. Why am I not surprised?

I'm not surprised, either. The left want nothing more than to shut down and shut up conservative commentators, conservative radio, and conservative blogging.

As seen on WUA earlier today how that CNN doesn't consider reporting good news from Iraq as being newsworthy, and how many people distrust the media. That's really great, guys, and it goes to show EXACTLY why we need the conservative outlets.

Let's call a spade a spade, shall we? This isn't a Fairness Doctrine, it's the inception of the Thought Police.

Government belongs to the PEOPLE, the people do NOT belong to the government.

Make America safe again, people. Fire the liberals in political office next election season. The LAST thing they want is to protect your individual rights afforded to you by the Constitution.

Again, I have to call this...Inverted...

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man