Anyone detecting a pattern here?
It doesn’t matter whether it’s just a question of bureaucratic overreach or part of a larger effort to silence conservative media. The effect is the same; a denial of the fundamental right of free speech for all.
FEC Commissioner Lee E. Goodman is sounding the alarm that there are many people at the FEC and on the left who want to change the rules governing political advocacy in journalism. And the practical effect of the change would be to target online conservative media.
I think that there are impulses in the government every day to second guess and look into the editorial decisions of conservative publishers,” warned Federal Election Commission Chairman Lee E. Goodman in an interview.
“The right has begun to break the left’s media monopoly, particularly through new media outlets like the internet, and I sense that some on the left are starting to rethink the breadth of the media exemption and internet communications,” he added.
Noting the success of sites like the Drudge Report, Goodman said that protecting conservative media, especially those on the internet, “matters to me because I see the future going to the democratization of media largely through the internet. They can compete with the big boys now, and I have seen storm clouds that the second you start to regulate them, there is at least the possibility or indeed proclivity for selective enforcement, so we need to keep the media free and the internet free.”
All media has long benefited from an exemption from FEC rules, thereby allowing outlets to pick favorites in elections and promote them without any limits or disclosure requirements like political action committees.
But Goodman cited several examples where the FEC has considered regulating conservative media, including Sean Hannity’s radio show and Citizens United’s movie division. Those efforts to lift the media exemption died in split votes at the politically evenly divided board, often with Democrats seeking regulation.
Liberals over the years have also pushed for a change in the Federal Communications Commission’s “fairness doctrine” to cut of conservative voices, and retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has delighted Democrats recently with a proposed Constitutional amendment that some say could force the media to stop endorsing candidates or promoting issues.
“The picking and choosing has started to occur,” said Goodman. “There are some in this building that think we can actually regulate” media, added Goodman, a Republican whose chairmanship lasts through December. And if that occurs, he said, “then I am concerned about disparate treatment of conservative media.”
Gee — ya think? “Disparate treatment” is a government euphemism for “target and destroy.”
You want to think that Republicans would never let this happen, but the sad fact is, they might not have a say in the final rules. How’s this for a nightmare scenario? Obama gets to name two new Supreme Court Justices that tip the balance of the court to the liberals. Meanwhile, Hillary is elected president in 2016 and the Republicans lose control of congress. The stage is set for a wide assault on the right, targeting money, online journalism, and talk radio.
Who is going to stop them?
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