Democrats Use Arizona Tragedy to Restrict Freedoms

Democrats have long stacked the political deck in their favor.  They did this by attaining overwhelming representation in the mainstream media -- all of the largest newspapers and all of the television networks were solidly Democrat. They were the gatekeepers of public knowledge and news slant.  Stories that were inconvenient to the Democrat cause were killed, buried or just not published.  News that doesn't see the light of day isn't news at all.  The public could only read or view news that the liberals allowed, and that reporting was often editorials in disguise.

Another weapon the Democrats used was the so-called "fairness doctrine."  That meant that editorial opinion in public media had to provide a forum for opposing views.  Many radio and television stations didn't editorialize because of this.  When the "fairness doctrine" was ended, talk radio bloomed.  Rush Limbaugh created a huge radio audience for his show and took Democrats and liberals to task over their policies, vigorously refuting their arguments and assailing their assumptions.  Other talk radio shows soon followed, with Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Michael Savage and others starting radio shows of their own.

With the coming of Fox News, the Democrat monopoly on news and opinion was finally ended and the Dems have been chafing ever since.  They want to bring back the "fairness doctrine," not because it was fair, but because it wasn't.  The fairness doctrine suppressed vigorous political debate, and vigorous debate is not helpful to the Democrat cause of big government and high taxes.

Politico states:

Today Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-SC, wants to bring back the Fairness Doctrine – a move aimed directly at talk radio – while Media Matters CEO David Brock asked Rupert Murdoch to rein in or possibly even fire Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin.

Other Democrat attacks on freedom were noted in my posts yesterday, on their planned curbs of gun ownership and restrictions on free speech.  Since a majority of Americans are opposed to such legislation, the Democrats hope to pass it during a moment of national angst, horror and grief over the Arizona shootings.  Never let a good tragedy go to waste.


Meanwhile, the odious left continues its blood libel:

While discussing Saturday's shooting in Tucson MSNBC host Chris Matthews specifically names Mark Levin and Michael Savage.

"Every time you listen to them, they are furious. Furious at the left. With anger that just builds and builds in their voice and by the time they go to commercial they are just in some rage every night with some ugly talk. Ugly sounding talk and it never changes," Matthews said.

Yes, I am furious at the left, too.  Furious over their assault on our constitutional freedoms, on their concerted effort to turn our nation into a bankrupt banana republic.  If we weren't furious, I suppose they could carry out their dismantling of America without opposition.  They'd like that, but it's not going to happen.