Censorship: Obama's Attack On Free Speech

No American should have been shocked by recent revelations that the Federal Communications Commission was sponsoring a thinly veiled effort to intimidate news coverage by the broadcast industry.  It was just the latest attempt by the Obama Administration to stifle free speech.

The administration's henchmen have undertaken an insidious effort to stamp out any criticism of the president, his policies or his authority to rule by executive fiat.  Censorship and media bullying are supposed to be the tools of totalitarian governments, not free and open democratic societies.

The latest infringement on the First Amendment came to light when FCC commissioner Ajit Pai used the  op-ed pages of The Wall Street Journal to expose a shady initiative to "thrust the government into the newsrooms across the country."

The commission's vehicle was a phony "study" to grill reporters, editors and station owners about their news decisions and news gathering.  As part of its research, the commission wanted to delve into perceived bias, the news selection process and coverage of so-called critical information needs.

FCC flunkies snooping around newsrooms would have a chilling impact on broadcasters.  The FCC awards broadcast licenses to television and radio stations.  Licenses are up for renewal every eight years.  By refusing to grant a renewal, the powerful FCC can put a station out of business.

Obama's spin masters tried to dismiss the firestorm over the survey as much ado about a harmless research project.  But broadcasters had every right to fear for their existence based on the Obama Administrations' full court press to censor the media.

It wasn't that long ago that Eric Holder's Justice Department was caught red-handed snooping into the phone records of 21 reporters at the Associated Press.  The news organization's crime was reporting on a foiled terrorist attack one day before President Obama had planned a press briefing on the drama.

As he always does, the president claimed no knowledge of the spying charges.  He has become the master a plausible deniability about the unscrupulous actions of the coterie of cronies running amok throughout his government.

Just as the AP story vanished from the headlines, the Justice Department was outed for targeting Fox News reporter James Rosen on charges of aiding and abetting a co-conspirator.  His crime was broadcasting a report on North Korea's expected response to United Nations nuclear sanctions.

Holder's thugs combed the personal emails of Rosen to try to discover how he learned about the North Korean president's likely reaction. As with other free press violations, Obama contended he first learned of his Justice Department's skulduggery from the news media.

In recent weeks, news leaked about the Federal Bureau of Investigation's indictment of conservative commentator and author Dinesh D'Souza on campaign finance charges.  D'Souza posted $500,000 bail and vowed the FBI bullies would not intimidate his reporting.

D'Souza had the audacity to direct a 2012 film chastising President Obama.  The movie, entitled "2016: Obama's America," was the top grossing documentary of that year, pulling in $33 million.  No one can remember liberal Michael Moore being harassed for his scathing movie on President George W. Bush.

Harvard Law School professor  Alan Dershowitz, a self-proclaimed liberal, wrote a column on the D'Souza case excoriating the FBI for its complaint.  "I can't help but think that (D'Souza's) politics have something to do with it.  It smacks of selective prosecution."

Most Americans have forgotten the administration's most egregious affront to free speech.  In 2012, a little known film maker produced a crude movie lampooning the prophet Muhammad.  His film was erroneously blamed for the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi.

The film-maker Nakoula Basseley Nakoula was arrested and held without bail on a trumped up charge.  His real crime was violating Islamic anti-blasphemy laws that do not exist in the U.S.  He is languishing today in a federal prison and has never been brought to trial.  

Taken in isolation each one of these incidents might be dismissed as the misguided actions of knuckle-headed administration officials.  But when viewed in context, these examples paint a clear picture of an orchestrated government  plot to censor political discourse and expunge dissent.  

Every American regardless of political affiliation should be outraged by Obama's pattern of attacks on free speech.  The guarantee of freedom of the press was the First Amendment written into the U.S. Constitution for a reason.  Free speech is all that stands between tyranny and liberty.