Scary Times for Free Speech

By Joseph Farah

I want you to think about what happened in recent days on the free-speech front.

- Michael Savage was officially barred from entering the United Kingdom because Home Secretary Jacqui Smith doesn't like his opinions.

- Rush Limbaugh was labeled a "traitor" and "terrorist" by a "comedienne" at the White House Press Correspondents Dinner. She also called for him to be waterboarded and wished for his death by kidney failure – all to the apparent amusement of Barack Obama.

- Through a mandate of Congress, radio stations across the country began seeking out community activists to monitor their programming, which is expected to have a chilling effect on content and result in at least some license renewal challenges because of controversial talk.

- Acting Federal Communications Chairman Michael Copps urged a 31-member "Diversity Advisory Panel" loaded with activists who detest the state of talk radio to "be bold" – to "make a real and lasting difference" in increasing minority and female ownership of the media and to act quickly. Henry Rivera – a longtime champion of the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" – serves as chairman of this censorship panel.

- The Senate Commerce Committee announced it was ready to hold confirmation hearings on the nomination of Julius Genachowski to be the new FCC chairman. He is known as a staunch advocate of "Net neutrality," another step in imposing censorship and government control of the Internet. He would have the government be the final arbiter in determining the content suitable for your blog or website.

- The Senate Homeland Security and Government Oversight Committee held hearings on the confirmation of Cass Sunstein to be the "regulatory czar" for the Obama administration. He once proposed what can only be characterized as a "Fairness Doctrine" for the Internet including a notion for a mandatory 24-hour cooling-off period for sending angry e-mails. He has also appeared on short lists of Obama's potential Supreme Court nominees.

- Congress is considering "investing" billions of dollars more in so-called "public broadcasting" – those entities that compete against private broadcasters and independent journalists though they are funded, aand thus controlled, by government.

- Members of Congress are actually talking about bailing out failed newspapers – at least those that are perceived as being essential propaganda tools for Big Government.

- Obama is considering establishing a new White House "cyber czar" under the National Security Council, while a bill in the U.S. Senate has been introduced to give the president the power to shut down the Internet in times of "national emergency."

And, on top of all that, a misogynistic little twerp named Perez Hilton was all but given the Nobel Peace Prize for his obnoxious, obscene characterizations of Miss California, who had the audacity to answer honestly a question about same-sex marriage at the Miss USA pageant.

Even after scoring her a "zero" – and effectively ending any chance she had to win the pageant – this flaming homosexual activist blogger called Carrie Prejean a "c---" and a "b----" and still got assurance he would be welcome back as a judge in future competitions.

In other words, there is a real war on against free speech in America – the only place in the world where it is enshrined in a constitution.

That war is being waged on many fronts – orchestrated by government, cheered by brain-dead ideological zealots and fought in the gutter with mud-slinging intimidation tactics by shock troops such as Wanda Sykes, Perez Hilton and Keith Olbermann.

What are these people afraid of?

Debate.

The free and open exchange of ideas.

Civil discourse.

The exercise of First Amendment-guaranteed rights.

Dissenting opinions.

Reasoned discussion.

Any semblance of fairness.

And, most of all, the truth.

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