KUHNER: Liberal Totalitariansim

Talk radio is overwhelmingly right-leaning because it satisfies the public's growing appetite for alternative news and commentary to the liberal media establishment. If the Democrats don't like the opinions of Savage, Limbaugh or Hannity, then all they need to do is go to CNN, MSNBC, NPR, The New York Times or The Washington Post. There are countless outlets peddling the anti-war, anti-Bush mantras of the left.
Kuhner, Insight Magazine

You must read Kuhner's seminal piece. Understand what these legislative moves like the ridiculously named "Fairness Doctrine" are really all about. Frightening times my friends. Insight magazine (PAID)

Kuhner: Liberal totalitarianism
Commentary by Jeffrey T. Kuhner
Insight

Liberal Democrats are attempting to muzzle conservative talk radio: they are assaulting free speech. Like the communists in the former Soviet Union, America's liberals seek to crush dissent by consolidating control over the media-especially talk radio, which has emerged as the dominant medium for conservative opinion.

Allies close to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are promoting legislation, which if passed, will take off the air prominent conservative radio hosts such as Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly-along with thousands of smaller conservative broadcasters. The bill, entitled the "Media Ownership Reform Act," is sponsored by Rep. Maurice Hinchey, a leftist Democrat from New York. The legislation aims to revive the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" of the 1940's: "all views" are to be given equal time on radio. In particular, the Federal Communications Commission would have the power to oversee and change radio and television content. The goal is to tilt the ideological balance of power away from the right on the nation's air waves.

The real force behind the effort to censor conservative talk radio is the progressive-philanthropist, George Soros. The radical leftist billionaire has made no secret of his hatred for conservatives. He says President Bush has transformed America into a militaristic, "fascist" empire. Moreover, Soros champions many of liberalism's chic causes: abortion on demand, legalization of drugs, homosexual marriage, euthanasia, unlimited Third World immigration, open borders, and one-world government anchored in the United Nations. He advocates all the issues that are anathema to popular radio talk-show hosts like Savage, Limbaugh and Hannity. Hence, he wants these commentators to be exiled to the political wilderness.

At a recent National Conference for Media Reform, sponsored by Free Press, a Massachusetts-based group heavily subsidized by Soros, Hinchey laid bare his plan to silence conservative voices on television and radio. The anti-war McGovernite attacked Savage, Limbaugh and other conservative radio hosts, saying they were "responsible" for leading the U.S. into the Iraq war, as well as for preparing the ground for future military invasions of Iran and Syria. According to Hinchey, these men pose a "threat" to American national security. Hence, under his bill, they would be fired.

"All of that stuff will end," Hinchey said.

In the Senate, the legislation is being supported by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. A self-styled "social democrat," Sanders is forming a media caucus with the explicit goal of ending conservative hegemony on talk radio.

"Now is the time to begin asking that if networks provide their listeners with 99 percent of talk shows being with right-wing extremists, whether that really is what public trust is about," Sanders said in an address in January. "Now is the time to open the question of the Fairness Doctrine again."

However, this begs the question of why do radio networks have most of their shows hosted by conservatives? The answer is a simple one: They're popular with listeners. Talk radio is overwhelmingly right-leaning because it satisfies the public's growing appetite for alternative news and commentary to the liberal media establishment. If the Democrats don't like the opinions of Savage, Limbaugh or Hannity, then all they need to do is go to CNN, MSNBC, NPR, The New York Times or The Washington Post. There are countless outlets peddling the anti-war, anti-Bush mantras of the left.

The liberal media and political class have tried to marginalize conservative talk radio for years-first by ignoring it, then by demonizing it, and finally by attempting to compete with it. Air America, with hosts such as Al Franken, was supposed to be the great liberal alternative to conservative talk radio. But, in spite of all the puff stories in The Times, The Post and CNN, Air America failed dismally to attract a large audience. When Hinchey, Sanders, Soros and their liberal Democratic allies complain about the need to "give equal time" to left-leaning views on radio, they forget one important fact: The radio audience is not interested. Now, after the failure of Air America, the Democrats are attempting to implement the final solution to their conservative problem: censorship.

Eastern European conservatives have faced similar oppression for the last 15 years. From Georgia to Croatia, Serbia to Slovakia, Soros' media empire has relentlessly sought to marginalize patriotic and conservative journalists. In many countries in the former communist bloc, there are hardly any conservative voices left in the mainstream media. In fact, the billionaire activist openly brags that the former Soviet empire has become "the Soros empire." He is now bent on destroying his ideological enemies in the belly of the beast-America.

What Soros understands-like all ambitious leftists before him, such as Lenin, Trotsky, FDR-is that attaining cultural power is the necessary precondition to achieving political power. The brilliant Italian Leninist revolutionary, Antonio Gramsci, outlined this strategy in his theory of cultural hegemony. Gramsci argued that once the left captures the commanding organs of culture and the media, the "state will simply fall into our hands." He understood that, by dominating culture and stifling all voices of opposition, the left would be free to manipulate and mold public opinion, thereby paving the way to permanent political dominance. This is why Soros and his Democratic allies are determined to smash talk radio, the main bastion of cultural/media resistance to the liberal regime.

The attempt to revive the "Fairness Doctrine" represents a direct assault on freedom of speech. It is a concession by liberals that they are losing the battle in the marketplace of ideas. Unable to compete with conservatives in the arena of rhetoric, facts and reasoned argument, Democrats are resorting to the Stalinist method of stifling all dissenting points of view. Unable to out-argue and out-debate Savage, Limbaugh and Hannity, liberals are hoping to silence them-once and for all.

More importantly, the war on talk radio reveals the totalitarian impulse at the heart of modern liberalism. Above all, liberalism is an ideology based on radical social engineering. Its ultimate goal is to transform America into a society characterized by economic collectivism, personal-and especially, sexual-liberation and multilateral globalism. To accomplish these goals, the left must fundamentally restructure the economy, the family unit, traditional bourgeois values, and even the nation itself.

This is why liberals ultimately rely on coercion to pass much of their agenda. They must raise taxes and propose new entitlement programs (like universal health care) to keep expanding the power of the state; they must push for homosexual marriage and abortion to keep undermining the nuclear family; they must expunge religion and the Ten Commandments from the public square to keep rolling back traditional morality; and they must insist on amnesty for illegal immigrants and subordinating foreign policy to the United Nations to keep subverting America's national sovereignty and distinct cultural identity. Their favorite tools of coercion are usually judicial activism and bureaucratic decrees. Now, however, riding high after the November midterm elections, they are going for the jugular-the outright silencing of their ideological opponents.

Conservatives must form a united front to prevent this blatant power grab by the Soros Democrats. If not, the return of the "Fairness Doctrine" will not only be a great victory for the forces of censorship, but a watershed moment in the continuing march of liberalism against everything that is good, decent and virtuous in America. -

Jeffrey T. Kuhner is the editor of Insight

Comments

[Winged Hussar 1683]

Here is an interesting tidbit on Maurice Hinchey: a typical anti-Second Amendment leftist who thinks gun control laws apply to everyone but him.

http://impeachpac.org/node/50
"He was arrested in 1995 for carrying a loaded gun in his luggage at a Washington airport. A licensed gun owner, he insisted it was an innocent mistake and pleaded no contest."

Right: he didn't know the gun was loaded. That alone tells the world he is an irresponsible firearm owner, perhaps one of the few Americans who should indeed not be trusted with firearms.

Res ipsa loquitur, the thing speaks for itself.

[tgusa]

That’s right Atlas.
If you do not like it change the station! As an American from the beginning I am totally insulted, yes I feel discriminated against as well. I live in California and some of my regular stations have been overwhelmed by Mexican radio, that’s right, I said Mexican radio coming in a stronger signal from Tijuana AM right now but soon FM I would guess. America is not going to become Tijuana norte. Have you ever been south of the border and seen the squalor, the abject poverty? Do we want that here in the USA.I grew up with people with names such as Perez or Sanchez etc. and they all spoke sometimes better English than me! They have overwhelmed our system, my wife a hardworking taxpayer for over 25 years has been tossed to the garbage can injured for ever if not for me she would be in deep trouble, it has changed all of our lives and why? Because the Mexicans have cut in line and stolen our golden egg. That is one reason I am leaving, yes selling my house and taking my taxes to my homeland, Mississippi! Fort Apache Mississippi. Coming soon to a town near you, no joke, unless this liberal/national socialist onslaught is stopped!

[wally]

Rush has been talking about this for years. The left cannot win in a clash of ideas, so they must shut the right down. You only have to look at the stupid global warming hoax, we say its a done deal, so your facts dont count. You cant have a differant opinion, becouse we have it all figured out already, thanks anyway. By the way, i have noticed alot of lib press putting Wiener(savage) in the same group as Rush,Hannity, Bortz, Levin, and some other good talkers. He does not belong there. (tinfoil hat screwed on straight now) Thanks Pamela

[backhoe]

If the Democrats don't like the opinions of Savage, Limbaugh or Hannity, then all they need to do is go to CNN, MSNBC, NPR, The New York Times or The Washington Post.

Damn straight.

Has anyone forgotten how, during the eight years of Clinton darkness plaguing America, the press and entertainment arms of the Drive-By Media carried water for them?

The web was embryonic- talk radio was the only medium discussing those "stories that they just wouldn't talk about..."

Talk radio is the most eglitatian medium there is- agree, disagree? Want to argue? Just pick up the phone and dial.

The Left is all about squelching and silencing even a contrary discussion, let alone maintaining an opposite view.

[Francis W. Porretto]

What comes to mind concerning Hinchey and his "Fairness Doctrine" revenant is that as noxious as it is, it's only an intermediate step. The first step was establishing dominion over the educational institutions. The final steps will be complete censorship, including the Internet, and citizen disarmament.

We live in perilous times. No danger is so great as that men be denied the means of defense: intellectual (ideas) and physical (weapons). Know where yours are at all times, and keep them loaded and locked.

[Nikolay]

From Georgia to Croatia, Serbia to Slovakia, Soros' media empire has relentlessly sought to marginalize patriotic and conservative journalists.
Hey, the current president of Georgia that Soros helped put into power is so pro-American, he named the central street of the capital city 'George Bush street'. Most of the pro-Western shifts of power in Eurasia in last years have Soros' fingerprints on them. The only 'patriots' that Soros 'marginalizes' (they do OK anyway) are crypto-fascistic crazies beholden to Putin.

In fact this anti-Soros rant resembles nothing like the screeds that the 'Russian patriots' that miss the good old Soviet Empire write.