By Alan Dershowitz:Comments by LiYang
Two Democratic members of Congress from Silicon Valley have written official letters to cable and satellite carriers urging them to shut down conservative TV channels.
These letters are reminiscent of those written by Sen. Joseph McCarthy and his henchmen back in the early 1950s urging television networks and Hollywood studios to drop suspected Communists or leftists.
All decent people who care about freedom of speech, without regard to right or left political viewpoints, must stand strongly in opposition to the censorial pressures being exerted by these benighted members of Congress.
"disinformation and extremism in the media." is vague and who's interpretations matters?
One person's "disinformation and extremism in the media." is another's free speech.
As with McCarthyism, this attack on free speech is directed only against one side of the political spectrum. This time it is focusing only on conservative news media.
When media is being cancelled and censored in the name of some leftist bureaucrat 's opinion of "disinformation" we know we are heading into totalitarianism. This is very dangerous ground.
As the great Justice Louis Brandeis cautioned us a century ago, "The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding."
Newsmax and Fox should challenge any congressional hearings dealing with the contents of their programs.
They should refuse to answer questions from Congress regarding their news gathering or presentation.
The government has no business being in their news or editorial rooms.
The First Amendment protects them from such unconstitutional intrusions.
Not only should Fox and Newsmax fight back against these efforts to control and censor them, so should the satellite and cable providers that carry them.
In the golden era of the First Amendment— from about 1960 to 2000 — the ACLU could be counted on to take up this battle. Don’t hold your breath.
Alan M. Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law Emeritus at Harvard Law School and author of "Guilt by Accusation" and "The Case Against the Democratic House Impeaching Trump."
I have been following Alan for some time now, see, even democrats can see truth and sanity at times. :)