Liberal Coalition Demands FCC Move to Shut Down Talk Radio

Kurt Nimmo
Jun. 03, 2010

A coalition of more than 30 liberal organizations is calling for censorship and a trashing of the First Amendment. The groups have banded together and have sent a letter to the FCC demanding the government monitor "hate speech" on talk radio, the internet, and the cable television news networks.

Read the letter in PDF format here.

The effort is centered on opposition to Arizona’s illegal immigration bill. The organizations include the Center for Media Justice, the Rainbow Push Coalition, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the National Association of Latino Independent Producers, and Common Cause.

The letter declares that "hate, extremism and misinformation have been on the rise … as the media has focused on Arizona's passage of one of the harshest pieces of anti-Latino legislation in this country's history." The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) states in the letter that “the current media landscape is a safe-haven for hate and extremism. Many communities and individuals do not have the information they want and need to intelligently engage in our democracy.”

According to a new Quinnipiac University poll conducted earlier in the week, 48% of surveyed Americans say they want their state to pass an Arizona-style immigration law. According to a CBS poll conducted last month, 56 percent of Americans say illegal immigration is a serious problem. Other polls show that upward to 89% of Americans think illegal immigration is out of control.

The NHMC assertion that corporate media coverage of the illegal immigration issue is biased does not square up with the facts.

A study conducted last month by the Media Research Center reveals that the corporate media has consistently skewed coverage of the issue. “From April 23 to May 3, the top three television networks offered viewers 50 stories and interview segments on their morning and evening news programs,” writes Tim Graham. “The tone was strongly hostile to the law and promotional to the ‘growing storm’ of left-wing protesters: 37 stories (or 74 percent) were negative, 10 were neutral, and only three were positive toward the Arizona law’s passage — 12 negative stories for every one that leaned positive.”

The NHMC demand for censorship, however, is directed more at talk radio and the alternative news and commentary media on the internet than “traditional” corporate media (with the exception of Fox News, of course).

“Hate [opposition to illegal immigration] has seemingly emerged as a profit-model for many radio programs,” the NHMC letter to the FCC states, “and many of these programs are syndicated throughout the country.”

The NHMC demands the FCC and the government monitor talk radio and alternative news media on the internet. Government surveillance “will encourage media entities to evaluate and correct their inaccuracies, solidifying the long tradition of journalistic integrity. It will help scholars, researchers and the public to understand the extent and effects of hate speech in media and the correlation between hate speech and hate crimes.”

The NHMC call for a witch hunt is supported at the highest levels of government. Cass Sunstein, who heads up the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, has called for censorship of “conspiracy theories” and covert COINTELPRO-like subversion of alternative internet news websites. Sunstein would force bloggers and others not connected to the corporate media to prove criticism of the government and government officials.

Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan, also shares the mentality calling for government imposed censorship. In addition, Rutgers University law professor Ellen Goodman, who is a "distinguished" visiting scholar with the FCC's Future of Media Project, has called for a direct government take over of media in Soviet fashion.

The NHMC coalition letter to the FCC is yet another example of the Stalinist mindset of so-called progressives who are intolerant of free expression under the First Amendment. The NHMC and others, including bureaucrats in the Obama administration, will not rest until they successfully close down talk radio and alternative news websites opposed to their open border agenda and critical of a command-and-control system lorded over by international bankers.