Something reeks of Stalinism here..oh, it’s Rep. Henry Waxman. Rather than let the First Amendment live, he is looking for a way to kill it:
Rep. Henry Waxman has asked his investigative staff to begin compiling reports on Limbaugh, and fellow radio hosts Sean Hannity and Mark Levin based on transcripts from their shows, and to call in Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin to discuss the so-called “Fairness Doctrine.”“Limbaugh isn’t the only one who needs to be made uncomfortable about what he says on the radio,” says a House leadership source. “We don’t have as big a megaphone as these guys, but this all political, and we’ll do what we can to gain the advantage. If we can take them off their game for a while, it will help our folks out there on the campaign trail.”
You can think Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin are bloated gasbags, but you have to understand that the idea of investigating these guys to shut them up is the exact reason we have the First Amendment. There are already laws that govern what they can say. It is called libel:
An untruthful statement about a person, published in writing or through broadcast media, that injures the person’s reputation or standing in the community. Because libel is a tort (a civil wrong), the injured person can bring a lawsuit against the person who made the false statement. Libel is a form of defamation , as is slander (an untruthful statement that is spoken, but not published in writing or broadcast through the media).
If these guys have said anything that fits under that definition, then prosecute them for it. However, if you just don’t like what they are saying, turn the station. You don’t create a system of rules in a government agency that dictates what goes on the public airwaves. That stinks of Soviet Russia or modern Venzuela.
Democrats give a lot of lip service to the Constitution. This shows what they really think of it. They would trash the First Amendment for political reasons. I think we are going to start hearing a lot more about the Fairness Doctrine in the near future.
Related posts:
