A Significant Number of Americans Favor Government Control of Free Speech

• Liberty is in danger of being extinguished...by our own hand.

Rasmussen recently published the results of a poll, and the numbers are startling:

Government Control of Media

47% of Americans believe that the United States Government should be involved in forcing ALL television and Radio Stations to offer equal amounts of conservative and liberal commentary. Only 39% oppose it. Last year, the numbers were evenly divided at 41% for and an equal number against.


Let me explain what that means. That means Rush Limbaugh would be required to set aside half of his program commentary time for a progressive. That means that Keith Olbermann would be required to set aside half his political commentary time for a conservative. The news networks would be required to give equal time to conservative reporting because they use liberal reporting to slant the news.

What would really happen is that Rush Limbaugh, and others, would leave terrestrial radio...killing AM Radio. They would find new homes on satellite radio and/or on the Internet.

Americans are on the verge of getting a heavy-handed Government that can regulate opinion on the airwaves.

Government Control of the Internet

The opinion on the Government control of the opinions expressed on the Internet are as follows: 31% favor the Government requiring equal conservative and liberal commentary being enforced on websites, including blogs. 50% oppose that.

Let me explain that for you as well. That means Daily Kos, Boing Boing, Talking Points Memo and all the lefty blogs would be required (by law) to offer an equal amount of conservative commentary. It also applies to righties like Michelle Malkin, Instapundit and the Little Green Footballs.

Locally, it would mean that I would have to give an equal number of words to a lefty (it is highly doubtful that any could keep up with my output), and the Scrutiny Hooligans would be required to do the same (I could manage it, but it would be extremely distasteful) by law.

Political Motivation

My opinion is that most people haven't thought this through to it's logical conclusion that we would be giving away freedoms to the government. And once the government takes a freedom...it is well nigh impossible to get it back through any means short of armed rebellion.

Here are some numbers to impress upon you the political nature of Controlling Your Speech:

.	Political Group	2008	2007

. For For . Liberals 54-26 51-33 . Conservatives even 40-48

By a slim margin, Liberals favor the Government gain control of the Television and Radio Station Political Commentary. The government will decide what is fair. Just like the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Communist Cuba, North Korea, most Arab Countries, Chavez's Venezuela.

If the Fairness Doctrine passes...it will be goodnight and good luck to us all as America will slide into an era where faceless bureaucrats will decide when a political commenter or reporter merits an opposing voice given equal airtime.

We will see a new era of Identity Politics, and ever greater numbers of smaller political groups vying for an ever shrinking audience as most Americans will simply turn their televisions and radios to something other than news...and that, I believe, is the whole point.


The lefties will strangle our freedoms as they attempt to limit the number of people who can be exposed to Conservative viewpoints.


And do not think they will stop at your television and your radio. They will come for your Internet, too. They are already trying with something euphemistically named "Net Neutrality" that will have the same effect as the "Fairness Doctrine."

I will have to sign this piece with the name of Cassandra...because I believe the tide to be mostly irreversible at this point. Without great effort...we will loose another freedom to the hungry maw of the lefty quest for control over every aspect of our lives.


Cassandra