House Democrats, Targeting Right-Wing Cable Outlets, Are Assaulting Core Press Freedoms

Discussion in 'Political Opinions & Beliefs' started by Jack Hays, Feb 27, 2021.

  1. Jack Hays

    Jack Hays Well-Known Member Donor

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    <THREAD TITLE EDITED TO MATCH LINK>

    Democracy dies in hysteria.

    Democrats Are Assaulting Core Press Freedoms

    Glenn Greenwald, Substack

    Not even two months into their reign as the majority party that controls the White House and both houses of Congress, key Democrats have made clear that one of their top priorities is censorship of divergent voices. On Saturday, I detailed how their escalating official campaign to coerce and threaten social media companies into more aggressively censoring views that they dislike — including by summoning social media CEOs to appear before them for the third time in less than five months — is implicating, if not already violating, core First Amendment rights of free speech.

    Now they are going further — much further. The same Democratic House Committee that is demanding greater online censorship from social media companies now has its sights set on the removal of conservative cable outlets, including Fox News, from the airwaves.

    The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Monday announced a February 24 hearing, convened by one of its sub-committees, entitled “Fanning the Flames: Disinformation and Extremism in the Media.” Claiming that “the spread of disinformation and extremism by traditional news media presents a tangible and destabilizing threat,” the Committee argues: “Some broadcasters’ and cable networks’ increasing reliance on conspiracy theories and misleading or patently false information raises questions about their devotion to journalistic integrity.”

    Since when is it the role of the U.S. Government to arbitrate and enforce precepts of “journalistic integrity”? Unless you believe in the right of the government to regulate and control what the press says — a power which the First Amendment explicitly prohibits — how can anyone be comfortable with members of Congress arrogating unto themselves the power to dictate what media outlets are permitted to report and control how they discuss and analyze the news of the day? . . . .
     
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  2. Steve N

    Steve N Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Well, if the left wants to stop disinformation, then the first thing they should stop is the notion that white supremacists are some sort of threat and involve just about every conservative who is white. If this was even remotely true, then blm would be crushed as would every liberal media outlet.
     
  3. Kal'Stang

    Kal'Stang Well-Known Member

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    Thread was already posted about this. It was pretty much agreed that leftist support this via the usual tactics of "but Trump!" and "they're not really" etc etc. A few were upfront about agreeing with it tho.
     
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  4. Moolk

    Moolk Banned

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    The left is authoritarian.

    And they were unfortunately so effective at convincing everyone its the right that is lol.
     
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  5. joesnagg

    joesnagg Banned

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    What's to suppress? The great majority of the "free press" became the Propaganda Ministry of the DNC YEARS AGO.
     
  6. RodB

    RodB Well-Known Member Donor

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    What better quintessential example than the NY Times.

    The leftist and Democrat party totalitarian mindset is entirely comfortable with it, and, as expressed by the congressional sub committee, an advocate of it.
     
  7. RodB

    RodB Well-Known Member Donor

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    The left and Democrats have no intention of mitigation the white supremacy strawman. It is a very handy hobgoblin in the words of H.L. Mencken. The left and Democrats are not interested at all in stopping "misinformation." They are only interested in stopping information provided by more conservative outlets and call it misinformation because the phrase has a nice ring to it. They certainly won't do a thing to affect the blatant, continuous, cacophony of actual misinformation and propaganda spewed out during the Trump-Russia witch hunt.
     
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  8. DEFinning

    DEFinning Well-Known Member Donor

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    Your Republican President Lincoln locked up journalists & shut down newspapers, in his day; so much for your naive idealism (& you worked in some role in which you were aware of government spying activities? Hard to believe, unless you are actually not that naive but only pretending to believe in this principle because, in this instance, it suits your primary intent: to attack the Democratic Left & support the Republican Right).

    But to your argument that Dems are trying to limit free speech: I think this is patently false. Show me a shred of evidence of any potential legislation that would prohibit legal speech (as you should be aware, all speech, such as fomenting insurrection, is not protected under the 1st Amendment). Any such law would be immediately challenged & found unconstitutional, at any rate, so your fake argument isn't even believably constructed. It might just as well be the Right's equivalent to orange man bad, on the occasions when that is the intellectually-lazy level presented by someone on the Left.

    No one will be prevented from giving their unsupported conspiracy theories. What they may be prevented from doing, and I support this idea, in principle, is calling this baseless hogwash, "NEWS!" Show me an Amendment that entitles broadcasters to make up their own facts & call it News. Right off the bat, it's false advertising, for which exist the Constitutionally-sound precedent for making laws against. Cry me a river.
     
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  9. RodB

    RodB Well-Known Member Donor

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    "Congress shall make no law ........abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;.......," It says nothing about the quality of the press, and it certainly does not say anything about freedom of the press so long as government deems it accurate. Which part of ".... no law abridging the freedom of the press.... (period)" are you having trouble with.

    And, BTW, advertising copy has zero relevance.
     
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  10. Eleuthera

    Eleuthera Well-Known Member Donor

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    Maybe the Dems are worried because they know that so many times in the past decade or two conspiracy theories have become conspiracy fact with the passage of time?
     
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  11. Jack Hays

    Jack Hays Well-Known Member Donor

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    Lincoln faced Civil War and mass treason. Not quite the same thing.
    And yes, I spent decades in the intelligence profession. That profession exists to protect free speech, a free press and "naive idealism."
     
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  12. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    If you follow the logic, it only makes sense that the left would have to go after core press freedoms.

    upload_2021-2-28_10-1-18.png
     
  13. Andrew Jackson

    Andrew Jackson Well-Known Member

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    Another OPINION Thread.in Current Events?:smh:

    Greenwald has become increasingly Cringe-Worthy (and Irrelevant), and his Recent OPINIONS (like the One in the OP) bear that out.
     
  14. Pred

    Pred Well-Known Member

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    4 hrs in DC vs almost of last year across the entire country. A few injuries and deaths on 1 day vs 2 billion in damages, 1000s of injuries and many murdered. And no one in power defended the actions in DC. However plenty in power defended the riots and BLM, ANTIFA and still do. Let’s keep comparing ACTUAL FACTS about who stands for rule of law shall we?
     
    Last edited: Feb 28, 2021
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  15. Jack Hays

    Jack Hays Well-Known Member Donor

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    Seemed pretty factual to me.
     
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  16. Daniel Light

    Daniel Light Well-Known Member

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    Welcome to the post-“Fake News News” era. When the last administration spends 24/7 claiming all
    The MSM is pumping out mass disinformation, did you really think the
    Pendulum wouldn’t swing the other way?

    That’s the problem with making bombastic claims, they tend to birth
    Equal and opposite amounts of bombastic replies. Welcome to the world you helped create.
     
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  17. Jack Hays

    Jack Hays Well-Known Member Donor

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    I voted against Trump twice, so I disclaim any role in creating anything. Regardless, the weapon against lies is truth, not suppression.
     
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  18. Daniel Light

    Daniel Light Well-Known Member

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    I agree, but in an Internet world where lies travel faster than truth, The pendulum is going to swing way out of whack at both ends.
     
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  19. RodB

    RodB Well-Known Member Donor

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    Another good book in Unfreedom of the Press by Mark Levin.
     
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  20. ButterBalls

    ButterBalls Well-Known Member

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    So in essence, the DNC hasn't learned from the past.. Well it's not like this is really something new, Democrat have never been really good/fans of/at history except when they rewrite it to suit/justify their agenda..

    Pretty much what we see here, Abe Lincoln did it!! "Two wrongs don't make it," well you know ;)
     
    Last edited: Feb 28, 2021
  21. Jack Hays

    Jack Hays Well-Known Member Donor

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    I once used the pendulum argument on a history exam when I was a college freshman. My professor was unimpressed, calling it a "high school idea" and telling me I was in college to do better.
     
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  22. ButterBalls

    ButterBalls Well-Known Member

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    And so did the other liars at MSNBCNN and leftwing media.. So of course the DNC now, want to cancel out all rightwing news media..

    Pretty obvious the DNC wants better odds then they already have..
     
  23. Pred

    Pred Well-Known Member

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    It’s not enough, the Right wing has only 1 major cable news outlet. The Left wants them completely silenced. They’re working on Apple to start removing THOSE PEOPLE from Podcasting too. Get them booted off Youtube as wel. The excuse will be like Parlor. Well you can manually download it and install it by jumping through some hoops. So then Amazon cancels their servers. The excuse then is, well they can provide their own servers too. They can still “exist”, sort of. Then Google removes them. Oh well, they can use their own internet.

    I hate to say it but if the similarities to Nazi Germany silencing Jews isn’t already apparent, what more is there? Oh that’s right. Convince people to start reporting people you see as “enemies”. Coworkers. Neighbors. Businesses. Family members. They’re bad you see. NOTHING like what Nazis were saying about Jews. So many Jews thought if they remained silent and just went along with it, they would be safe. Too bad history wasn’t so kind. And if the Left keeps doing what they’re doing, our present will be Germany’s past. Ain’t it grand?
     
    Last edited: Feb 28, 2021
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  24. ButterBalls

    ButterBalls Well-Known Member

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    Like I say, the left is so obvious ;)
     
  25. Moolk

    Moolk Banned

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    We do. I can’t help that a few left wing plants decide to get violent and you fell for it.
     

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