Free Speech Debate (Round Two)

Why is that Democrats are all fervent supporters of free speech until the speech doesn't support their agenda:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,135627,00.html

The meaning of the senators’ letter is clear: if the Sinclair runs “Stolen Honor,” their applications to renew their station licenses may be in doubt, especially if Democrats have a working majority in Congress

Author of that article is from the Cato Institute. Cato rocks!

Can you imagine the response from the right if CBS pre-empted local programming in late October to show Fahrenheit 9/11?

Sinclair gave $66,000 to the Republican Party in 2004 and he owns Fox, ABC, CBS, WB and UPN, fourteen of which air in crucial swing states.

Federal election law prohibits public corporations and labor unions from airing "electioneering communication" sixty days before an election.

He says it’s news, personally I don’t think it is.

Personally I’d like to see the film to see how they can prove Kerry prolonged the war without offering nothing but personal opinions and biases. If the films considered news I think we’re in trouble.

ok, to clarify, sinclair owns some local stations including ones affiliated with fox, abc, cbs, wb, and upn networks. it doesn't own fox, abc, cbs, wb, and upn. BIG difference

and how's this for a response, from their website:

We welcome your comments regarding the upcoming special news event featuring the topic of Americans held as prisoners of war in Vietnam. The program has not been videotaped and the exact format of this unscripted event has not been finalized. Characterizations regarding the content are premature and are based on ill-informed sources.

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry has been invited to participate. You can urge him to appear by calling his Washington, D.C. campaign headquarters at
(202) 712-3000.

chris

[QUOTE=Fig]ok, to clarify, sinclair owns some local stations including ones affiliated with fox, abc, cbs, wb, and upn networks. it doesn't own fox, abc, cbs, wb, and upn. BIG difference
chris[/QUOTE]

You are correct. What I should have said was Sinclair Broadcast Group has a news franchise which includes 37 of its stations which air local news in 31 markets.

Sorry I didn’t mean to imply he was the owner of Fox and CBS.

And if anyone cares to read about this "documentary." According to the official website, “A “Documentary exposing John Kerry’s record of betrayal”

But I thought there were no exceptions to free speech? Answer my question Flackbait, is the desire by Democrats to stomp this film into the dirt a supression of free speech?

Will edit this post in a few minutes after I find the recent stats on CBS and NBC gifts to a certain political party (not parties).

Political Contributions:

CBS:
Total: $111,000
- To Republicans: $2,000
- To Democrats $109,000

NBC:
Total: $146,585
To Republicans: $0 (yes, zero)
To Democrats: $146,585

Fox News: (suprising to me)
Total: $25,383
To Republicans: $4,930
To Democrats: $20453

Granted, these are the employees of the networks, and not the networks themselves, but if this doesn't prove a Liberal media bias, I don't know what does. Networks can claim to be fair and balanced, but hide it or not, everyone has an opinion, and CBS and NBC have a hard time keeping their opinions a secret.

Where did I say there weren’t any acceptations to free speech? And I’ve already answered your question as to why I think the democrats would oppose Stolen Honor.

Go watch Celsius 41.11 that Nostalgia posted. It’s being shown in the same way Fahrenheit 911 was being shown.

Also statistics from the employee’s is irrelevant. You can’t take Fox, NBC, and CBS who are questionable and have questionable affiliates and draw a conclusion that their playing by the rules. (edit: because of their employee's contributions) I still stick with my answer which was basically Stolen Honor shouldn’t be shown as news.

No, you didn't answer my question. My question was: Why is that Democrats are all fervent supporters of free speech until the speech doesn't support their agenda? Where again is your response?

Go watch Celsius 41.11 that Nostalgia posted. It’s being shown in the same way Fahrenheit 911 was being shown

That has nothing to do with the point at hand, and I admit, is being shown the same way, minus 30,000 theaters.

Also statistics from the employee’s is irrelevant. You can’t take Fox, NBC, and CBS who are questionable and have questionable affiliates and draw a conclusion that their playing by the rules. I still stick with my answer which was basically Stolen Honor shouldn’t be shown as news

It is not irrelevant, and if I could understand your 2nd sentence, I would reply, I'm sur e. How is it irrelevant? I've already stated how it is relevant, but I want you to tell me why it isn't relevant. And how is 'Stolen Honor' not news? Is it not news because it's a documentary? Did you think that Dan Rather should have brought the Bush memos to light as he did? He presented that as news, I think this is a similar situation.

[QUOTE=mattboy_slim]No, you didn't answer my question. My question was: Why is that Democrats are all fervent supporters of free speech until the speech doesn't support their agenda? Where again is your response?

That has nothing to do with the point at hand, and I admit, is being shown the same way, minus 30,000 theaters.

It is not irrelevant, and if I could understand your 2nd sentence, I would reply, I'm sur e. How is it irrelevant? I've already stated how it is relevant, but I want you to tell me why it isn't relevant. And how is 'Stolen Honor' not news? Is it not news because it's a documentary? Did you think that Dan Rather should have brought the Bush memos to light as he did? He presented that as news, I think this is a similar situation.[/QUOTE]

-First you accuse me of saying there wasn’t any exceptions to free speech. Now you’re doing the same thing to the Democratic party. When was it decided that there aren’t any exceptions to free speech? Die hard conservatives weren’t the only one’s who put in place certain filters in our media. Democrats were there too! Heelllo!

-Celsius 41.11 has something to do with my point however…

-Your statistics are irrelevant. The employee’s aren’t the one’s who decided what gets aired on the news and what doesn’t. Employee’s are the one’s who do what their told by taking orders from those who do have an agenda. I’m talking about those old wrinkly white guys who own just about everything under the sun. ;)