User:Miller17CU94/In defense of free speech

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This is an essay; it contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. It is not a policy or guideline, and editors are not obliged to follow it.

This letter is in support of free speech in all media and in opposition to any restrictions that may be placed on it, whether it be in print, broadcast, or online.

Note: This letter was mailed to Jim Marshall (U.S. politician) who represents Georgia's 8th congressional district where I live.

July 5, 2007

Dear Mr. Marshall:

Regarding your May 21, 2007 letter that I received from you regarding the Fairness Doctrine, I strongly disagree with you on this because of the words of some members of your own Democratic Party in the United States. Who cannot forget that during the 2004 Democratic Presidential Primary on Governor Dr. Howard Dean (now your party’s chairman) continuing calling “… to take the country back from Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, and Sean Hannity” and “… that he was going to shut down FOX News” which some people implied to be all of FOX (FX, FOX Sports Net, SPEED TV, FOX Movie Channel, and network FOX)? Who cannot forget that in March 2004 on ESPN’s Around the Horn that Chicago Sun-Times sport columnist Jay Mariotti calling for the stoppage of FOX Sports Net? Who cannot forget the lie that University of Southern California law professor (and former 1988 Dukakis campaign manager) Susan Estrich lying to WGST-AM 640 talk show host Denny Schaffer on the air on October 27, 2006 that Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-New York) would not bring back the Fairness Doctrine? Who cannot forget that during a radio broadcaster’s convention in Memphis on January 13, 2007 that Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) calling for the return of the Fairness Doctrine? Who cannot forget that when Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez closed down Radio Caracas TV on May 27, 2007 that the American left-wing blogs of DailyKos.com and DemocraticUnderground.com both cheered Chavez’s actions? Who cannot forget the calls during this past week by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-California), and Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-California), Barbara Boxer (D-California), Hillary Clinton (D-New York), Richard Durbin (D-Illinois), or John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) to reinstate this during the week of June 25, 2007? As an American I cannot.

Do you want to know why they want the Fairness Doctrine returned? It is because of power and a claim of “imbalance” within the press. That sir is a lie when you consider that there are already government-sponsored radio and television programs in this country called National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting System. Additionally, in a poll conducted by MSNBC, a decidedly liberal cable news network along with the original Cable News Network (CNN), that donations from 143 journalists from American Federal Election Commission (FEC) data found that from 2004 to March 31, 2007 that 125 donated to either your party or to liberal causes, 16 donated to Republican or conservative causes, and two donated to both. Let us also not forget that the media in this country lean very heavily to the Democrats in terms of voting. It was a relief that the Fairness Doctrine was abolished in 1987 because it paved the way for more information being out in the open for people to both access and use, including the growth of cable television including MSNBC, FOX News Channel, FOX Sports Net, C-SPAN 2, C-SPAN 3, and others; talk radio where there are now over 2000 stations, satellite radio such as Sirius and XM, and the Internet, including Yahoo!, Google, and Wikipedia (Disclosure: I am Wikipedia User Miller17CU94, one of the top 1000 editors in the English Wikipedia as of May 27, 2007 at #988. See Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by number of edits). How many times have you been able to appear on WGST-AM 640 in Atlanta or WMAC-AM 940 in Macon during your term as Congressman as a result of the abolition of the Fairness Doctrine? It is obvious sir that your party’s call for the reinstitution of this is nothing more than censorship. Despite claims from your leaders and most of the mainstream press of ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and CNN, the American people are not stupid and can see this issue as plain as day as being nothing more than censorship. What talk radio does is gives the average American a right and an avenue to discuss issues of the day, especially controversial ones like abortion, the Iraq War, the war on terrorism, religion, gay marriage, culture, the state of the country, and the state of the world. This is something that we could only do in private and in the local community during the Fairness Doctrine’s reign of terror of 1949-87. As you can see, it allowed for information to be exposed and reviewed, something that our Founding Fathers wanted when they created the Constitution in 1787. It is unfortunate that there are people issues who do not want issues discussed at all because they are enlightened. Let us also not forget that despite the Pence Amendment‘s overwhelming passing which you voted, it was only for one year. Additionally, there are calls by fellow Democrats John Dingell and John Conyers, Jr. (both from Michigan) to combine the “Fairness Doctrine” and the “Hate-crimes” legislation that would make any one from talk radio a criminal (and I can assume that would be their listeners as well). That was a tactic that former President Bill Clinton tried to pull in the wake of the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in blaming talk radio for Timothy McVeigh’s actions. All that is are people who are arrogant and close-minded in their views and unable to see things for what they are instead of what they want it to be.

Imposing the “Fairness Doctrine” would be a mistake for it would shut down many ways people would get part of their daily information. It would also send a chilling effect throughout the media, including print, broadcast (radio and television), and online that the government could do that next. We already know that there are many people within your party who would like to get not just FOX News taken off of the air, but all of FOX. It would not surprise me that some members of your party are beginning to pressure NFL Commissioner Roger Goodall, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, NASCAR President Mike Helton, and NCAA President Miles Brand to renege on long-term contracts to host sporting events on network FOX, on FOX Sports Net, or on SPEED TV. Do you want to see America's Most Wanted, COPS, or The Simpsons off of the air? Will you go to the internet and try to restrict the usage of people to certain websites, like the Chinese have done to Google, Yahoo!, or Wikipedia?

For the good of the country and for the good of Free speech, oppose the reinstitution of the “Fairness Doctrine” at all costs. The genie is out of the bottle, Mr. Marshall. Good luck trying to put it back in.

A copy of the body of this letter will be put on my user page in Wikipedia under the following link:

User:Miller17CU94/In defense of free speech

This is for you and anyone else on the Internet to look if they choose.