The Discerning Texan

PREDICTION: Right now it's Democrats pushing a return to the "Fairness Doctrine," but they'll soon be joined by Republicans tired of things like this, and there will be pressure to extend regulation to the Internet. Incumbistan will unite under threat from outside.

Labels: Blogging, First Amendment, Talk Radio, The Internet, The Left, Thought Police

Oakland has banned a group of African-American Christian women from accessing a government e-mail and message board system because it considers them bigoted and interested in conducting hate speech. While the same systems regularly carry political statements from gay-rights groups, the city has banned the women because of the loaded language in their communications -- words such as marriage and natural family. George Will explains:

Marriage is the foundation of the natural family and sustains family values. That sentence is inflammatory, perhaps even a hate crime.

At least it is in Oakland, Calif. That city's government says those words, italicized here, constitute something akin to hate speech and can be proscribed from the government's open e-mail system and employee bulletin board. ...

Some African American Christian women working for Oakland's government organized the Good News Employee Association (GNEA), which they announced with a flier describing their group as "a forum for people of Faith to express their views on the contemporary issues of the day. With respect for the Natural Family, Marriage and Family Values."

The flier was distributed after other employees' groups, including those advocating gay rights, had advertised their political views and activities on the city's e-mail system and bulletin board. When the GNEA asked for equal opportunity to communicate by that system and that board, it was denied. Furthermore, the flier they posted was taken down and destroyed by city officials, who declared it "homophobic" and disruptive.

The city government said the flier was "determined" to promote harassment based on sexual orientation. The city warned that the flier and communications like it could result in disciplinary action "up to and including termination."

Labels: First Amendment, Nutroots, PC, The Left, Thought Police

In other words "progressive" talk radio hasn't been able to compete, so now they want the government to step in with a whole assortment of regulations. No amount of Orwellian language can change the fact that this is censorship.

The report would be easy to dismiss if not for the fact that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she will "aggressively pursue" reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine, according to two House Democrats who spoke to the American Spectator last month.

A senior adviser to Pelosi explained the Speaker's reasons to the Specator:

First, [Democrats] failed on the radio airwaves with Air America, no one wanted to listen ... Conservative radio is a huge threat and political advantage for Republicans and we have had to find a way to limit it. Second, it looks like the Republicans are going to have someone in the presidential race who has access to media in ways our folks don't want, so we want to make sure the GOP has no advantages going into 2008.

Despite these quotes, as well as the popularity of muzzling conservative talk-radio among the liberal base, it would be extremely unwise for Pelosi to pursue this: 1.) The Democrats would take a severe beating politically not just from Republicans, but from a public that, whatever its opinion of Limbaugh and his peers, isn't about to condone their silencing by the government for what Republicans could easily cast as a political witch-hunt; 2.) Pelosi probably wouldn't want to waste precious political capital pushing something that will generate enormous coverage only for it to get vetoed anyway; and 3.) Pelosi has no interest in uniting a conservative base fractured over immigration, especially going into an election year.

Labels: Conservative, Democrat Sabotage, First Amendment