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April 15, 2009
Obama Blueprint For Silencing Talk Radio Exposed
New book warns of 'commissar committees' to censor speech
WASHINGTON
As popular opposition to the reinstitution of the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" mounts, Barack Obama and the Democrat-dominated Congress will end-run critics with legislation that will curb dissent on talk radio through the imposition of "localism" rules and community watchdog boards across America, charges a new book by a former NBC Westwood One talk-show host.
In "Shut Up, America! The End of Free Speech," author Brad O'Leary says the plan amounts to the development of party-approved "commissar committees" to censor the kind of lively and free-wheeling debate America has known since the scrapping of the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" by President Reagan's Federal Communications Commission in 1987.
By demanding radio stations answer to local community watchdog boards to ensure programming is "balanced," "fair," "diverse," "tolerant" and "serving the public interest locally," O'Leary says the rules and legislation being planned will once again make talk radio accountable to politicians, political activists and bureaucrats at the FCC.
The ultimate threat over the heads of radio stations is license renewal, he explains. "Far-left groups such as ACORN [Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now] stand at the ready to pressure these boards into silencing conservative talk radio programs, either through intimidation or the loss of broadcast licenses," says O'Leary, who, during the presidential campaign, wrote the best-selling book, "The Audacity of Deceit: Barack Obama's War on American Values."
The book points out there were only 75 radio talk shows in America during the last year of the "Fairness Doctrine" rules. Today, there are more than 3,000.
"The liberals' once-dominant media forum is fading fast, in part because Americans have discovered real diversity of ideas elsewhere," O'Leary writes. "The enemies of free speech know this. They also know that, if they are to accomplish their goal of stifling all debate, they will have to control all media outlets."
While the Obama administration and some Democratic congressional leaders have denied efforts to reinstate the "Fairness Doctrine," none have denied efforts to stack the FCC with appointees open to the idea of reining in talk radio.
"Under the rubric of 'broadcast localism,' it is clear the commission is proposing no less than a sweeping takeover by Washington bureaucrats of broadcast media," wrote Rep. John Boehner, House minority leader, in a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin as far back as last June. "The proposals and recommendations for commission action contained in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking amount to the stealth enactment of the Fairness Doctrine, a policy designated to squelch the free speech and free expression of specifically targeted audiences."
Those regulations would specifically "reinstitute advisory boards to regulate broadcast content and revive a host of other rules the commission dropped more than 20 years ago," explained Boehner.
And the Internet
Also revealed in "Shut Up, America" is evidence that Obama's new FCC chairman wants to create a "Fairness Doctrine" for the Internet to regulate and censor online speech.
Julius Genachowski, an Obama friend from Harvard Law School and the mastermind behind Obama's online fundraising machine, is an ardent supporter of so-called "net neutrality" regulations, perceived by O'Leary as a first step toward "Fairness Doctrine"-style regulations on content for the Internet. Genachowski would have government decide what content Internet operators and network owners must provide.
"Incredibly, he claims this is to keep the Internet free and open to all," says O'Leary. "In reality, his goal is to usher the heavy hands of federal regulators into the tent. Genachowski would give federal regulators editorial authority over what private operators must provide."
Genachowski also advocates creating new media ownership rules that promote a diversity of voices on the airwaves. In fact, Genachowski is credited with helping craft the Obama technology agenda, which states:
"Encourage diversity in the ownership of broadcast media, promote the development of new media outlets for expression of diverse viewpoints, and clarify the public interest obligations of broadcasters who occupy the nation's spectrum."
"Such language is bureaucratese for government control," explains O'Leary. "So-called 'public interest' requirements would put broadcasters at the mercy of local review boards. Such boards would, of course, be politically charged entities with the power to bar any broadcast content that is not deemed to be in the 'public interest' of the local community."
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Wild Thing's comment.......
This will serve to kill AM radio. Of course, those frequencies won’t go unused. Once the stations begin to fold the govt will step in to save them. Then they will not only control the content of the airwaves, they will actually own them.
The enemy within is relentless attempt to stamp out every shred of opposition.
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....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Posted by Wild Thing at April 15, 2009 06:43 AM
Comments
You're right WT. The government will "bail out" the failing AM stations by buying them with our tax dollars. Then they will have govt programming, of a socialist nature, ACORN approved of course.
Posted by: TomR at April 15, 2009 02:16 PM
Obama will do this the same way he's done everything else. He will sneak in the back door and ambush any station that disagrees with him.
The sneak-thief hasn't the courage to confront anybody head on but rather baffle them with his bullshit, then cut them off at the knees, and of course his trusty thugs from ACORN will do his dirty work and when all is said and done it will be called 'Equality'. Then free speech will go down in the process.
Posted by: Mark at April 15, 2009 08:02 PM
Tom, ACORN approved is right.
Posted by: Wild Thing at April 16, 2009 02:41 AM
Mark, good one...."sneak-thief"
He sure is, he is very sneaky,even looking
at him move is snake like sneaky.
Posted by: Wild Thing at April 16, 2009 02:43 AM
