Censorship

net neutralityIf you look deeply enough, you can find common ground with the devil.

Earlier this week, members of the Christian Coalition of America (CCA) and The National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL) testified before Congress in favor of net neutrality. (Source)

Net neutrality is the idea that the Internet should be free and open. Broadband providers should not speed up or slow down a connection to a web site based on its content or its owner’s ability to pay for faster or priority access. No site is given priority over another. Net neutrality results in a “democratic” web, where surfers have equal access to everything, including junk. From Save the Internet:

[click to continue…]

Sunday, July 1: I like it:

funny stuff
————————————————————————————————-

microphoneEnvy is ugly. All humans are capable of it, and some display it more than others. It’s always, always unattractive. When I feel a wave of it coming on, I channel the energy toward productive pursuits, drawing on my own strengths to create something instead of wallowing in envy over what others have created or trying to destroy or undermine it.

Envy is exactly why liberals are trying to revive a dead doctrine. Because no one wants to listen to a bunch of whiny white liberals on the radio all day, liberal talk radio is a dud. Conservative talk radio is king, and liberals can’t stand it. Instead of channeling the “envy energy” into creating profitable, market-driven programs (products) of their own, they want to shut down market-driven conservative talk by government fiat. Unimaginatively typical.

I had no idea liberal politicians were this serious about trying to destroy conservative talk radio. Last week, Republicans and a few Democrats in the House of Representatives defeated an attempt to allow liberals to piggyback off the success of conservative radio, the Hill reports.

This wasn’t the first time liberal politicians have attempted to suppress speech they don’t like, and it won’t be the last. They want free speech rights for their views, but they’ll use the government to shut down everyone else’s. It’s frustratingly predictable.

The Hill sums up why conservatives oppose the so-called Fairness Doctrine as applied to talk radio:

Conservatives fear that forcing stations to make equal time for liberal talk radio would slash profits and pressure radio executives to scale back on conservative programming to avoid escalating costs and interference from government regulators. Opponents of the Fairness Doctrine argue that radio stations would suffer financially if forced to air liberal as well as conservative programs because liberal talk radio has not proven popular or profitable. For example, Air America, liberals’ answer to “The Rush Limbaugh Show” and Michael Medved, filed for bankruptcy in October.

Liberals’ motto: “If you can’t compete with it, destroy it.”

Conservatives’ motto: “If you can’t compete with it, find an untapped or under-served market for your product and sell it there.”

Addendum: The left-leaning, taxpayer-supported National Public Radio is 37 years old. I wonder how long it would have survived if it had to rely on advertising instead of tax dollars…

Related posts:

airwavesLiberals are such crybabies. (By the grace of God, I’m no longer a liberal. No more tears!)

They’re still whining about the domination of conservative talk radio. The Center for American Progress and Free Press, liberal “think” tanks, put out a joint 40-page report titled, Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio (PDF). They outline the “problem” and propose solutions that wouldn’t surprise even the most politically apathetic American.

The Numbers

Liberals are hopeless. On the one hand, they seem to hate concepts like “business” and “market.” On the other, they have no problem taking advantage of the jobs and capital created by businesses or the opportunities created by a particular market. In fact, they want to piggyback off the success of conservative talk radio.

The researchers found that 91 percent of weekday talk radio programming is conservative and only 9 percent is liberal (they use the word progressive; I won’t). Every weekday, people who want to listen to conservative radio can enjoy 2,570 hours (and 15 minutes!) of it. Liberals who listen to liberal radio have to settle for only 254 hours. But that’s what the market demands, right? Not necessarily so, say the libs. I’ll get to that later.

The tanks say that 76 percent of the programming in the top 10 radio markets is conservative. “While progressive talk is making inroads on commercial stations, conservative talk continues to be pushed out over the airwaves in greater multiples of hours than progressive talk is broadcast,” cried the researchers.

Why does conservative talk dominate the airwaves? I (and many other conservatives and a few honest liberals) believe that conservative talk dominates the airwaves because of de-regulation of the airwaves in the 1980s and because there’s a bigger market for conservative talk. But the think tanks believe these explanations are inadequate. Not wrong, mind you, but inadequate.

[click to continue…]

Laura MalloryTuesday, May 29: For the latest on Laura Mallory’s misguided crusade, see Laura Mallory, Foiled Again!

Update II (12/21 @ 2:47 p.m.): Would it be too much to ask readers to follow links and read the articles before commenting on this post? Probably. :?

Update: According to Scholastic, J. K. Rowling’s American publisher, Book 7 will be titled, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. More here.

***

Laura Mallory, Christian mother, has been on a year-long crusade to have the Harry Potter books removed from government school library shelves in Gwinnett County, Georgia.

A few months ago, the Gwinnett County School Board refused to remove the books. Last week, the Georgia Board of Education upheld Gwinnett County’s decision. Mallory says she may appeal.

By the way, she’s never read the books. Not one.

Mallory’s quest is misguided, and her efforts will be fruitless. I don’t know any Christians who want to ban books, and I hope I never meet any. In the scheme of things, what Mallory is doing doesn’t matter that much. There are more important things going on in the world for Christians to worry about, and the Harry Potter books are so far down the list, they barely register.

So what is it about the books that offend Mallory’s sensibilities as a Christian?

[click to continue…]

Law Against Holocaust Denial?

February 20, 2006

I was shocked to learn that Austria has a law against, “whoever denies, grossly plays down, approves or tries to excuse the National Socialist genocide or other National Socialist crimes against humanity in a print publication, in broadcast or other media.” (Source) They’re kidding, right? Don’t get me wrong. I understand how angry some are [...]

Read the full article →

Shame on you, Bill Gates!

January 3, 2006

Update (12/5): New stuff! —————————————————————————————————————————- What does the head-geek-in-charge think he’s doing? Censoring Chinese bloggers just like communist China does? What goes on here? Microsoft’s MSN Spaces is censoring bloggers. American blogger Rebecca MacKinnon has the scoop: On December 16th I created a blog and attempted to make various posts with politically sensitive words. When [...]

Read the full article →

Racist cartoon?

December 7, 2005

Hube here again! Via the man whom I consider my “blogfather,” John Rosenberg and his awesome site Discriminations, comes word of a possible NAACP boycott of The Michigan Daily, the University of Michigan’s student newspaper, because of this cartoon it ran on November 28: NAACP 2nd Vice President Jamila Fair said the cartoon reduced affirmative [...]

Read the full article →

No Such Thing As Bad Publicity II

July 9, 2005

If you criticize the culture of death, perversion, “choice,” or any religion that’s not Christianity, they call you phobic. If you criticize Christianity, which heavily influenced western culture (a culture that Islam opposes, by the way), you’re enlightened, intellectual, rational, progressive, free-thinking, tolerant. The irony is lost in the PC shuffle. I thank God in [...]

Read the full article →

FEC v. The Loud and Unruly

March 25, 2005

How appropriate that I chose to invoke the First Amendment (see post below) on the very day the Federal Election Commission (FEC) held a hearing on regulation of the Internet. You may recall that a few weeks ago FEC Commissioner Bradley Smith warned us that the FEC was considering applying campaign finance reform laws to [...]

Read the full article →

George Orwell, Eat Your Heart Out

January 18, 2005
Related Posts with Thumbnails
Read the full article →