Our First Amendment rights are under unprecedented attack. Increasingly, the previously sacrosanct status of freedom of speech that has been the hallmark of American life since the founding our nation is jeopardized by a variety of legislative, treaty, and political pressures.
Let's start by examining the international threat. As noted by L. Gordon Crovitz in today's Wall Street Journal, representatives from 193 nations will meet in December to regulate the internet, under the auspices of the United Nations' International Telecommunications Union. China, Russia and Iran get a vote. Russia's Vladimir Putin has bluntly stated that his goal in this process is to impose "international control over the internet." The process leading up to the December meeting has been extremely secretive.
As Conservatives, our response to this disaster in the making should be loud and clear: Washington does NOT have the right to limit our First Amendment rights through this or any other treaty. And make no mistake about it: in the 21st Century, limitations on the Internet, the primary method modern Americans use to communicate political thought, is a direct assault on the First Amendment.
The next threat is home grown. Rep. Jim McGovern has introduced (last November) a bill to amend the First Amendment, in an effort to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC. Ignoring centuries of American legal precedent, the bill would open up a new concept wherein certain classes of political speech would be restricted. McGovern claims it would limit only corporations, but it would establish a slippery slope that would threaten the entire concept of free speech.
The third threat comes, ironically, from old-line media moguls themselves. For years, the hard left media has been increasingly angry over competition from both the internet & talk radio, and has supported various moves, without success, to impose schemes to regulate the competition out of existence. Fortunately, their despicable attempts have failed, so far.
However, they are engaging in new tactics, symbolized by what happened last weekend on Saturday Night Live. The popular comedy show had scheduled a skit mocking Barack Obama's trip to Afghanistan. Inexplicably, the skit was pulled from the show--perhaps censored would be a better word. In its place, a segment poking fun at Fox News was imposed. This heavy handed domination by the left wing media leadership over their own creative talent is a most potent expression of hypocrisy and disdain for the truth, and it is rarely discussed.
The left wing, pro-censorship crowd will be more active than ever this year, in their desperate attempt to keep Barack Obama in power. By any objective standard, his record is so dismal that any honest discussion of his administration cannot be anything but critical. They must prevent those free discussions from occurring, and they will resort to a frontal assault on the First Amendment to do so.
Our task as Conservatives has never been more critical. This year, we stand at the front lines of the battle to preserve freedom itself.
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