Great piece by Steve Forbes for Fox News (Opinion)

As hard as it may be to believe, McChesney and his indefatigable band of media revolutionaries are being taken seriously by some policymakers in Washington. They are granted regular audiences with those overseeing our nation’s media policy at the FCC and FTC, and meeting regularly with members of Congress.

Their latest plan to defacto nationalize the media calls for the federal government to bail out newspapers with $60 billion in new government subsidies. As anyone familiar with Washington knows, money does not come free: Such subsidies will virtually invite the government into the fourth estate as overseers. Richard Nixon must be rubbing his eyes in disbelief. But Free Press tells us not to worry. Such media reform will have safeguards in place to protect the freedom of the press from government influence.

Which means in a year or so, Forbes won’t be able to write such an opinion for Fox News, as it will be critical of Herr Obama.

We’ve seen leftist interference in the media here in Canada - for example, the Mark Steyn/Maclean’s debacle. Taking a privately owned magazine before “human rights” panelists because you were unable to personally force them to publish a rebuttal to something you didn’t agree with - despite your letter to the editor being printed.

In the US, such a crackdown doesn’t appear necessary - at this time. Right now, the bulk of the press continue to fawn over Obama, hanging on his every word, defending his every stupidity and pushing his every agenda. There are few holdouts - Fox News is one of them, and is routinely discounted by the other networks as being a “tool of the GOP”. Ironic, since ABC has actually been a tool of the Obama administration.

But most galling in light of Free Press’ assurances that we have nothing to worry about by inviting the feds into the media business, is McChesney’s defense of Chavez’s crackdown on opposition media in Venezuela. Regarding Venezuelan broadcaster RCTV, a persistent Chavez critic whose license was revoked by the president himself, McChesney suggests that if the station were broadcasting in the United States, “its license would have been revoked years ago,” and that “its owners would likely have been tried for criminal offenses, including treason.”

Wh-whut? Treason? Please. If we couldn’t charge Michael Moore with treason in the lead up to the 2004 election - or any other time, really - what makes this McChesney fellow think a TV station would get charged?

Treason is a very serious charge in the United States, and it carries a big penalty - the kind of penalty that causes lights to dim. Even Timothy McVeigh wasn’t charged with treason (though he was still fried, and good riddance). McChesney and his “free press” are suggesting anyone who doesn’t agree with the great Obama be charged with treason?

Please, oh please, tell me this fellow isn’t being taken too seriously by the FCC bureaucrats?

My latest at Examiner.com, on proposed (by a Democrat, naturally) cyber-bullying legislation that would stifle free speech the way it is here in Canada.

Believe me, there are a few trolls who serve no other purpose but to insult and demean anyone who doesn’t fall into lockstep with them, and I’d personally love to see them in person and ask them to repeat themselves. Sadly, 99.9% of them are too cowardly for that sort of thing. Most of them won’t even write under their real names.

That said, this bill is nonsense on so many levels. I know the Obama administration has behaved like a bunch of teenagers with Daddy’s credit card at times, and taken the family plane out for a joy ride from time to time, but must we also legislate on the basis of a hormonal teenage girl?

We’re a day early due to the long weekend on both sides of the border (Thanksgiving in the North and Columbus Day in the South). We decided that this show, regarding the Steyn/MacLeans verdict was too important to miss, so we’re giving you an extra day with it!

This week we welcome Pete Vere, co-author of The Tyranny of Nice, to talk about some of the lesser-known human rights complaints in Canada, as well as to discuss the Steyn verdict.

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Canadians, LISTEN TO THIS SHOW before you vote on Tuesday!

… but that still doesn’t make me any more comfortable with this measure.

Cyber-bullies who plague internet chat rooms with obscene and insulting comments will be banned under the first national scheme to strip them of their anonymity.

People going online will be forced to provide their real names and social security numbers under a new law that makes internet portals responsible for policing message boards and weblogs.

The law has been introduced in South Korea, and is certain to be closely monitored by other countries where there is concern over online abuse.

The move, which is decried by some as an overly fierce infringement of online liberties, aims to curb the most damaging excesses of so-called “keyboard warriors” – people who concoct sex-scandals, fraud allegations and other libels that chiefly target figures in the public eye.

No thanks. As long as I’m not getting spammed, I’m pretty tolerant in my comments section. No death threats, no spam… other than that you can say what you want. I have rarely (very rarely) deleted or banned anyone. If you want to be an anonymous wank-stain, you’re welcome to it.

Dean Esmay says “Talk about anything“. I call bullshit. Fucking hypocrite.