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May 01, 2009
'Arctic blast' Against Free Speech Coming
Censors for talk radio expected within 90 days
Leader of public awareness campaign warns of 'Arctic blast' against free speech
The leader of a newly formed public awareness campaign to alert U.S. citizens about an effort to stifle free speech says he expects local "boards" will be assembled within 90 days to begin censoring talk radio, a move that will come as an "Arctic blast" against the expression of opinion in the United States.
WND reported just days ago on a meeting at which more than two dozen principals of the nation's top talk radio shows held a private strategy meeting to discuss government plans to squelch critical political speech on radio.
Organized by Brad O'Leary, author of the new book, "Shut Up, America! The End of Free Speech," and Joseph Farah, editor and chief executive officer of WND, the group chose one attendee to be spokesman and chairman of the coalition – syndicated host Roger Hedgecock of San Diego.
The American Radio Free Speech Foundation was adopted as the name, and leaders now have announced a public awareness campaign and educational initiative, called Don't Touch My Dial.
The announcement said the U.S. now is facing "an insidious attack on its First Amendment Rights that is being cloaked in legislation and regulation evidenced by the recently circulated draft FCC regulations … to impose 'localism' and 'media ownership diversity' on talk radio."
"In addition, under the guise of 'cyberspace security,' Sens. Rockefeller, Snowe and Nelson have introduced S773 which would, critics say, give the federal government control over the Internet including, under emergency conditions, the right of the president to shut down the whole Internet or sites on it, including the interruption of e-mail," the announcement said.
"When the public is informed about what is happening behind the scenes to threaten their First Amendment rights, they will be outraged. As shown in a recent poll that was commissioned by the coalition and is part of the 'Zogby/O'Leary Report's First 100 Days Poll' when 3,937 voters from the last election were asked: 'Four members of the U.S. Senate recently introduced a bill that would allow the president of the United States to turn off the Internet nationally in the event of an emergency, however the Bill does not DEFINE what constitutes an emergency. Do you support or oppose this bill?'" the announcement said.
Roger Hedgecock told WND that most people simply don't understand what the government appears to be demanding.
"I think the FCC is on the cusp of enacting regulations that would fundamentally alter the traditional American assumption that we have the right to share and debate political opinions," he said.
"I believe the strategy is to make the current state of compliant journalism that prevails in the mainstream media the norm as well on the Internet and in talk radio," he said.
And it's coming soon.
"I think in the next 90 days we will see the imposition of the local advisory boards. They will immediately become complaint departments staffed by the Left on all local and nationally syndicate talk programs," Hedgecock warned.
The underlying threat, of course, would be to the license the business needs to operate as a radio station.
"The threats of those complaints to the viability of the underlying station licenses will be immediate and will force corporations that own these stations into a very defensive posture," he said.
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Wild Thing's comment......
This is all overwhelming, I get emails from Roger Hedgecock, I signed up for them at his website for his talk show. I seldom get to hear his talk show so this way I can still stay informed. He has been talking about this for days and is on fire about it. Thank God.
I have no idea who the other talk show hosts were at the meeting but I am sooo glad they had a meeting.
This article in WND has a lot more infomation that we need to be aware of. Thank God we can have articles like this one and others. At least so far.
"WND reported just days ago on a meeting at which more than two dozen principals of the nation's top talk radio shows held a private strategy meeting to discuss government plans to squelch critical political speech on radio. "
This was my post about this:
Nation's Talkers Meet On 'imminent threat'
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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 May 1, 2009 06:45 AM
Comments
I can foresee the day when we can only have government approved radios with only the one government station on them. We are losing our freedom as rapidly as if we had been invaded by the Chinese Army.
Once these laws are passed they are almost impossible to reverse later.
Posted by: TomR at May 1, 2009 11:50 AM
After the first complaint how fast can this get to the SCOTUS, this is most flagrant violation of free speech I have ever seen. Are Books next.
In their warped version of what society is to be. Everybody is equal, but some are more equal than others, again so much for their egalitarian philosphy. It's equal when they make the rules and we follow them but when we dare not follow their rules thats when we get hammered then shipped to the re-education camp to get our mind right.
So now we have a selective use of the First Amendment, i.e., we can say anything we want as long as they say its ok. The left was worried about Bush tapping phone calls going to the middle east and the left was incensed, their privacy was being breeched, well now it looks like the Constitution has been shredded.
If the president can shut down the internet at his descretion when something important happens then what is to prevent him from suspending the Constitution ?
Somebody wake me up and tell me this is only a bad dream.
Posted by: Mark at May 1, 2009 09:35 PM
Tom, YIKES very scary!
"Once these laws are passed they are
almost impossible to reverse later."
Posted by: Wild Thing at May 1, 2009 11:58 PM
Mark,I agree!
This is insane every bit of it. Obama
makes me think of 666.
Posted by: Wild Thing at May 2, 2009 12:04 AM
