Internet Censorship

Calls Increase for Government to Regulate Internet Journalists and Bloggers

June 2, 2010

Infowars.com - Outrage is rising over a Michigan lawmaker’s plan to introduce a bill to license bloggers and internet-based journalists.

Walter Lippman argued that the people are incapable of accurately understanding the complex “unseen environment” of public affairs and the modern state without a professional and “specialized class” of technocrat-journalists.

“State Sen. Bruce Patterson is introducing legislation that will regulate reporters much as the state regulates hairdressers, auto mechanics and plumbers. Patterson, who also practices constitutional law, says the general public is being overwhelmed by an increasing number of media outlets — traditional, online and citizen generated — and an even greater amount of misinformation,” Fox News reported on May 28. “Legitimate media sources are critically important to our government,” he said.

The establishment idea that “legitimate” media sources “are critically important to our government” is hardly a new idea.

Obama’s man at the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Cass Sunstein, is on record as advocating holding blogs and alternative internet news media “responsible” for the information they publish. Sunstein penned a book entitled “On Rumors: How Falsehoods Spread, Why We Believe Them, What Can Be Done.” Sunstein’s book is essentially a blueprint for imposing online censorship. Kyle Smith, writing for the New York Post, notes that Sunstein would force bloggers and others not connected to the corporate media to prove criticism of the government and government officials.

“The litigation expense would be daunting,” writes Smith, “the time necessary to defend a posting (or an article) would work to the benefit of the public figure being criticized since the delay would probably allow the figure to win an election before the truth ‘won out’.

The mere threat of retaliatory actions would be enough to dissuade many commentators from daring to issue a word of criticism or skepticism” and would result in self-censorship.

In order to enforce the government world view and its demands for political correctness, Sunstein has suggested infiltration of the blogosphere and dispatching covert agents into “chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups.”

Sunstein’s program would target those advocating false “conspiracy theories;” in other words, “an attempt to explain an event or practice by reference to the machinations of powerful people, who have also managed to conceal their role.”

“Sunstein’s closeness to the President, as well as the highly influential position he occupies, merits an examination of the mentality behind what he wrote,” writes Glenn Greenwald.

Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan, also shares the mentality calling for government imposed censorship, specifically as it relates to the government assuming authority to prohibit corporations from engaging in political speech such as publishing pamphlets that advocate the election or defeat of a candidate for federal office.

In March, Infowars.com reported on Rutgers University law professor Ellen Goodman, who is a “distinguished” visiting scholar with the FCC’s Future of Media Project. Goodman submitted a proposal for a government takeover plan targeted at the internet called the National Broadband Plan.

Commissar Goodman said the government needs to provide “narrative content necessary to involve the entire population in democratic decision making or to foster widespread economic and social flourishing.” She said there are “information gaps” in the investigative journalism arena, especially in regard to “undeserved, minority, and poor populations.” Goodman wants to “transcend” the “legacy public broadcasting system” in order to “correct these deficits,” including a government takeover of commercial television.

This “narrative,” of course, would be dictated by the government and the corporate and banking elite that controls and steers it.

Goodman is not alone. FCC Commissioner Michael Copps has also come out in favor of government control of internet journalism. Coops told PBS’ Bill Moyers that the government has an interest in how the internet is used to “serve the American people.”

The government and especially the corporate media have pushed the idea that “citizen journalism” is dangerous and should be licensed and regulated if not eliminated altogether ...

HR 5175, The Disclose Act, Will Kill the Blogosphere

"Make no mistake about it, the campaign finance bill introduced this morning is not about reform, transparency, accountability or good government. It is about election advantage, plain and simple. An effort to disregard the First Amendment and defy the Supreme Court in order to limit the speech of those who may disagree with you is an effort that has no place in this country." - Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), April 30, 2010

May 20, 2010

cehwiedel.com - In January, the Supreme Court decided the Citizens United (McCain-Feingold) case. This case was a huge victory for freedom of speech. Under the theory of never letting a crisis go to waste, the left immediately denounced the decision as a victory for corporations and a defeat for the American citizen.

There is no question that gutting McCain-Feingold was a great victory, but the same clowns that gave us that horrible law are now working at something even worse. It is called the DISCLOSE act. The left says it is just going to require corporations to disclose when they are sponsoring speech.

This is simply not true.

This bill, currently in the House Administration Committee, would extend the jurisdiction of the Federal Election Commission over speech and, in particular, speech over the internet.

This would kill the blogosphere. And that is their goal.

By giving the FEC jurisdiction over political speech, bloggers would be required to fill out massive forms and face civil and even criminal penalties for violations. Interestingly enough, the establishment media is exempted from these regulations.

Most bloggers are not rich. Most even have day jobs. Very few could afford fines imposed by the government bureaucracy. Almost none have the funds to be able to fight a government bureaucracy with unlimited funds. If this legislation becomes law, many bloggers will have to stop blogging because the price of compliance is too great, or the fear that fines could bankrupt them, or even the fear of criminal prosecution!

This is even more troubling when you consider that Supreme Court Nominee Elena Kagan, as Solicitor General in the Citizens United case, argued that the government had the right to ban political pamphlets!

This bill was only introduced less than a month ago, and it is now before the House Administration Committee and the House Judiciary Committee.

Call your congressman today and tell them you want this bill killed.

Remember, the Citizens United case, like so many others, was decided by a 5-4 vote. We came within one vote of having the First Amendment being wiped from the Constitution. The left wants to silence anyone who disagrees with them and will keep trying to enact draconian laws to do so.

The bill is HR 5175, the Disclose Act.

The clear purpose of this legislation is irretrievably to upend First Amendment protections of political speech in the months leading up to an election. The protection of free speech rights are too important to the foundation of American democracy to be infringed upon. Unfortunately, H.R. 5175 does just that. Accordingly, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce strongly urges you to oppose H.R. 5175. - Bruce Josten, Letter Opposing HR 5175, the Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections Act (DISCLOSE Act), May 20, 2010