After fighting against the long-honored American right of One Man-One Vote, and getting a dose of financing from their Democratic buddies, ACORN is going after another one of the rights guaranteed by our Constitution, free speech. They are now fighting to bring back the fairness doctrine:
ACORN Pushes Return of Fairness Doctrine
by Connie Hair
It was only last November that ACORN -- the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- was under FBI investigation for voter fraud in several states. Oh, wait: aren’t those investigations going on now?
Never mind. ACORN -- a favorite of our Community Organizer in Chief -- has a new agenda. Which is really part of the old agenda: getting Democrats elected.
What Democrats fear most, and what many conservatives value most highly, is talk radio. Its political punch is conservatives’ biggest weapon in the war of ideas. And, naturally, ACORN wants to kill it by restoring the old “fairness doctrine.”
You’ll find a plethora of liberals seeking to make sure that your young child has access to hard-core pornography on computers at the public library, but don’t let them listen to Rush Limbaugh or, God forbid, Sean Hannity. The freedom to speak out against those in our government who seek to limit our freedoms is among the most fundamental of safeguards, and the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats are now working in earnest to destroy it.
ACORN has a long and rather thoroughly corrupt record, involved in everything from helping tens of thousands (and maybe hundreds of thousands) of people register to vote who aren’t legally entitled to do so: illegal aliens, convicted criminals and the like. And now -- apparently planning how to spend their cut of the new Obama “stimulus” spending -- ACORN is readying a campaign to kill conservative talk radio.
The Capital Research Center, a non-partisan, non-profit group whose mission is to act as a watchdog over other non-profit groups, presented a quite extensive exposé last November of the founding, funding and activities of ACORN. This shocking report shows a well-funded group grounded in Marxist ideology and gangland-style tactics, whose self-proclaimed mission is none other than the destruction of capitalism in America. Vital to their success is the suppression of free speech.
The framework for the attempt by Democrats to silence political opposition is already in place in what the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) calls localism, a scheme set up in the form of local “community boards” that will decide whether or not your local broadcast station is meeting the standards required to review and renew their broadcast licenses every two to four years.
As you can see from the FCC localism webpage, localism regulations have already been through well over a year’s worth of procedural hearings, and, as of April 2008, “Broadcast Information Specialists are Available for Public Inquires.” The rules and regulations have been set forth in “The Public and Broadcasting,” which is the FCC field manual for the ACORN “activists” and lawyers to intimidate your local community boards into harassing your local radio stations into submission or recommend the revocation of their broadcast license. Given the reported $4.2 billion allocated for ACORN and like groups by the so-called stimulus bill signed into law by Obama yesterday, all that is left to fulfill this scenario is the confirmation of Obama’s new FCC chairman, nominee Julius Genachowski. After he’s confirmed, the full frontal assault on our First Amendment rights will begin quickly.
ACORN’s own website proudly displays their intent:
II. Make the mainstream media accessible and accountable to low- and moderate-income people.
A. Reinstate the Fairness Doctrine in broadcasting, so that grass roots community groups have equal time to express their views.
B. Require cable TV companies to make good on their promises to allow community groups access to air time, or revoke their operating licenses.
Membership on the local board is a key to the ACORN’s plan: activists on state and local boards can give their national agenda support that can’t be obtained elsewhere. “Diversity” and “underserved communities” are their mantra. The plan is for the boards to control the content of stations with their ability to make licensing renewal recommendations to the FCC. We all know how intolerant the left is of any ideas other than their own -- just look how any conservative speaker is treated by the left when they speak at any college campus around the country today.
I asked House minority leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) about this open secret called “localism” yesterday. He told me, “‘Localism is quickly becoming code for the efforts of liberals to limit free speech and dissent. The American people do not believe the federal government should be in the business of dictating or restricting what’s on the public airwaves, and Republicans will fight any and every effort to stifle free speech.”
Now what we need is a ground game. This is no longer about red or blue states. ACORN, the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats are openly forcing us into a clear choice between freedom and fascism. We’ll defend our First Amendment rights and talk radio. There’s no separating one from the other.
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