Earlier this morning, I read through Captain Ed's post about the Fairness Doctrine. Last night, Senate Democrats voted in near unison to give the FCC the ability to re-institute the Fairness Doctrine. The only Democrat to vote for our First Amendment rights was Evan Bayh of Indiana:
The doctrine, a former requirement that broadcasters present opposing points of view on political issues, was scrapped in 1987 by the Federal Communications Commission, which said the policy restricted journalistic freedom. The bill by Sen. Norm Coleman, Minnesota Republican, would prevent the FCC from reinstating the doctrine.This makes it official. Democrats are the anti-First Amendment Party. What's most insulting is that these corruption brokers think they can silence any part of the conservative movement. As Sen. Coleman points out, there's too many 'launching pads' that conservatives can set the terms of the debate from. The truth is that Democrats have to resort to this desperation measure because they can't win a fight against true common sense conservative principles. Their only hope for victory is in shutting down as many conservative opinions as possible."We live in an age of satellite radio, of broadband, of blogs, of Internet, of cable TV, of broadcast TV. There is no limitation on the ability of anyone from any political persuasion to get their ideas set forth," Mr. Coleman argued in support of the Broadcaster Freedom Act of 2007. "The public in the end will choose what to listen to."
By a vote of 49-48, senators voted not to consider Mr. Coleman's amendment after Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, raised a point of order. Senate rules require 60 votes to waive a point of order. An attempt by Mr. Coleman last week to attach his bill as an amendment to a defense authorization bill was similarly blocked by Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat.
In a swipe at Mr. Coleman, Mr. Kennedy accused sponsors of unrelated amendments of delaying passage of the education bill and "basically insulting the families of this country."
Mr. Coleman countered by linking a prohibition of the Fairness Doctrine to education. "This bill is about educating young people," he said. "Well, let them have unfettered access to information."
Ed makes a great point that this should become a Republican election issue. I couldn't agree more. Every Republican challenger should use this vote against their Democrat incumbent. Our presidential nominee should beat Hillary or Obama over the head with their voting against the First Amendment every day from now until Election Day, 2008.
If they're voting against our First Amendment rights, they should be forced to defend their votes before the entire nation. The truth of the matter is that they're the party of intellectual cowards. Instinctively, they know that they're out of touch with America. They don't want to admit it but, deep down, they know it.
Another reason why Democrats likely want to re-institute the Fairness Doctrine is because they know the role conservative talk radio plays in exposing their corruption. The last thing corruption artists like John Murtha, Bill Delahunt, Alan Mollohan or William Jefferson want is to take one shot after another from conservative talk radio for their corruption.
You think that Democrats want Bill Delahunt's dealings with Hugo Chavez highlighted? They certainly don't want to defend John Murtha's slanderous accusations against the Haditha Marines to the average American.
All these things can be tied up in a neat little package by simply saying that Nancy Pelosi didn't come close to fulfilling her promise that this would be "the most ethical congress in history."
In fact, the case should be made that they didn't get anything done to help the American people, that they didn't clean up the swamp in Washington and that the only thing they should be remembered for legislatively should be that they voted against the First Amendment.
I'm certain they can't win with that record.
Gary I encourage you to check out www.stopliberalcensorship.com, which is an online petition and web site dedicated to fighting Democrat attempts to censor free speech. I encourage you to sign the petition and pass along to others.
Posted by: John Randall at July 20, 2007 02:43 PM
