UNCOMMON VELOUR: Freedom of the press

Monday, March 9, 2015

Obama's Federal Communications Commission Seized Control Of The Internet!

http://if.inboxfirst.com/ga/webviews/4-4370411-18-40202-53421-91347-4d9529149e

Update: On February 26, Barack Obama's Federal Communications Commission Seized Control Of The Internet!

       As political pundit Dick Morris put it, Barack Obama just did "something that all of the despots in the world have tried to do but failed to do." And Morris adds that he did "it by executive action."

       But there is hope. Congress has the authority and power to reverse this draconian Obama takeover of the Internet BEFORE IT’S IMPLEMENTED BY THE FCC.

       And, thanks to the faxes and calls that are being generated by patriotic Americans like you, some Members of Congress are already moving to reverse this despotic Obama-FCC power grab. Representative Marsha Blackburn and 19 other Republicans just introduced legislation to totally reverse this FCC ruling and prohibit the FCC from issuing similar rulings in the future.

       But there is not a moment to lose. Our elected officials need to hear from you now... BEFORE THIS NEW FCC POWER GRAB CAN BE IMPLEMENTED.

Use the hyperlink below to send your urgent Blast Faxes to each and every Member of the Republican Leadership of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. Or alternatively, send your urgent Blast Faxes to each and every Republican Member of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.

Send My Blast Faxes

Don't Worry: If You Like Your Internet, You Can Keep Your Internet.

       Prior to Obama's FCC voting to seize regulatory control over the Internet on February 26, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler would only release a four-page summary of the 332-page plan that he kept under lock and key.

       Under the guise of something dubiously called "net neutrality," Barack Obama's FCC promised to use its heavy hand to "regulate" the Internet so that its use is "fair."

       We were told not to worry... that nothing in the secret 332-page plan should be a cause for alarm and if you like your Internet, you can keep your Internet.

       But FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai has actually seen the 332-page edict and we'll let his warning speak for itself:

First, President Obama's plan marks a monumental shift toward government control of the Internet. It gives the FCC the power to micromanage virtually every aspect of how the Internet works. It's an overreach that will let a Washington bureaucracy, and not the American people, decide the future of the online world.

        Second, President Obama's plan to regulate the Internet will increase consumers' monthly broadband bills. The plan explicitly opens the door to billions of dollars in new taxes on broadband. Indeed, states have already begun discussions on how they will spend the extra money.

        Third, President Obama's plan to regulate the Internet will mean slower broadband for American consumers. The plan contains a host of new regulations that will reduce investment in broadband networks. That means slower Internet speeds.

        Fourth, President Obama's plan to regulate the Internet will hurt competition and innovation and move us toward a broadband monopoly. The plan saddles small, independent businesses and entrepreneurs with heavy-handed regulations that will push them out of the market. As a result, Americans will have fewer broadband choices. This is no accident. Title II was designed to regulate a monopoly. If we impose that model on a vibrant broadband marketplace, a highly regulated monopoly is what we'll get. We shouldn't bring Ma Bell back to life in this dynamic, digital age.

        Fifth, President Obama's plan to regulate the Internet is an unlawful power grab. Courts have twice thrown out the FCC's attempts at Internet regulation. There's no reason to think that the third time will be the charm. Even a cursory look at the plan reveals glaring legal flaws that are sure to mire the agency in the muck of litigation for a long, long time.

        And sixth, the American people are being misled about what is in President Obama's plan to regulate the Internet. The rollout earlier in the week was obviously intended to downplay the plan's massive intrusion into the Internet economy.

       You read that right. New taxes... less choice... slower Internet speeds... and that's just for starters. Now that Barack Obama has control of the Internet, it's just a small hop, skip and jump from the government regulating what you can say or do while you're online.

"Socialism For The Internet."

       That's what Seton Motley, the president of Less Government and an expert on the subject, calls it.

       Motley adds: "It's an assault on the industry to effect an ideological outcome" so "the government will be able to pick winners and losers."

       Washington Times columnist and syndicated radio talk show host Tammy Bruce goes a step further and claims: "The Internet must be killed because it dares to keep turning on the light in a room the left prefers remain dark."

       Bruce goes on: "This would be done to make the Internet more 'fair,' of course. But the truth of the matter is it's an excuse to essentially nationalize the Internet. The moment that's accepted, all bets are off...."

       Senator John Thune says: "It is a power grab for the federal government by the chairman of a supposedly independent agency who finally succumbed to the bully tactics of political activists and the president himself."

       But radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh may have said it best: "[D]o you want the people who gave you ObamaCare running your Internet service? Do you want them in charge of what you can get and when you can get it and how much it's gonna cost you?"

       We might add, do you want the people who brought you the failed healthcare.gov website running your Internet?

       There is only one way to stop this government power grab. Congress has the authority to stop it. Congress has the duty to stop it and Congress needs to hear from you right now.

Yours In Freedom
Center For Individual Freedom

Center for Individual Freedom

815 King Street

Suite 303

Alexandria, VA 22314

Phone: 703-535-5836

Fax: 703-535-5838

CFIF is a 501(c)(4) not-for-profit constitutional advocacy organization with the mission to protect and defend individual freedoms and individual rights. Contributions to CFIF are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.

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Saturday, February 22, 2014

OBAMA CRACKDOWN ON PRESS FREEDOM ESCALATES

Copied from the following link:

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/02/20/White-House-crackdown-press-freedom

Last week, Reporters Without Borders dropped America in the World Press Freedom Index 2014 from 33^rd to 46^th. James Risen of The New York Times rightly explained, “I think 2013 will go down in history as the worst year for press freedom in the United States’ modern history.” And he’s right. The violation of press freedoms has been egregious under this administration, even as the press fetes President Obama as an honest and effective commander-in-chief.

Selective Access. President Obama has regularly granted special access to reporters who give him preferential coverage. CBS’ Steve Kroft admitted as much after a late-2012 interview with the President during which CBS clipped Obama’s explicit refusal to label Benghazi an act of terror: “(Obama) knows that we’re not going to play ‘gotcha’ with him, that we’re not going to go out of our way to make him look bad or stupid.”

Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball, got special access for a profile of Obama for Vanity Fair – but Obama insisted on redlining his quotes. Lewis explained that “the White House insisted on signing off on the quotes that would appear.” A reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle was threatened for covering an anti-Obama protest. As early as 2008, candidate Obama was kicking dissenters off planes after their outlets endorsed John McCain.

Targeting Reporters. In May 2013, the Associated Press dropped the bombshell that the Department of Justice had grabbed phone records for its reporters and editors of the course of two months. Records for 20 telephone lines belonging to the AP and reporters for it were seized between April and May of 2012. Those seizures affected over 100 journalists.

The AP’s President and CEO Gary Pruitt stated, “There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters.” Fox News’ James Rosen was also targeted by the DOJ after running a story about North Korea nuclear development. His State Department visits were tracked and his movements were followed. His parents’ phone records were even grabbed.

Placing FCC Monitors in Newsrooms. Last week, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai revealed in the pages of the Wall Street Journal that the FCC will be sending employees into media workplaces to monitor how and what stories are chosen. The goal: to “ferret out information from television and radio broadcasters” concerning “the process by which stories are selected.”

Pai explained, the FCC “plans to ask station managers, news directors, journalists, television anchors and on-air reporters to tell the government about their ‘news philosophy’ and how the station ensures that the community gets critical information.” Reporters will also be asked whether their stories were killed by management in an effort to elicit “specifics about how editorial discretion is exercised, as well as the reasoning behind the decision.”

Refusing to Answer Questions. President Obama held fewer press conferences than any president since Reagan. He held ten less than George W. Bush, 54 less than President Clinton, and 64 less than George H.W. Bush. And during those press conferences, questions were largely scripted and chosen. He held just 107 Q&As with the press during his first term, as compared with 354 by George W. Bush. In fact, Obama considers tough questions “unfair,” as he told Bill O’Reilly during his pre-Super Bowl interview.

Refusing to Comply With Freedom of Information Act Requests. According to Bloomberg News, Freedom of Information Act compliance under the Obama administration has been abysmal. Bloomberg reported that “19 of 20 federal agencies did not comply within 20 days to a request for travel expenses made under the Freedom of Information Act.” Obama’s record on FOIA requests in his first two years was worse than George W. Bush’s in his last three – an odd pattern, given that administrations tend to tighten up on transparency as time goes on. When Obama was given an award for open government, it was not open to the press.

Here are Obama’s stats: 38.4% denied in 2009, 37.7% denied in 2010, 35.3% denied in 2011. In his last three years, Bush’s stats were 23.5%, 24%, and 40.6%. In 2009, the Obama administration asked Judicial Watch to praise the administration’s transparency, but then refused to hand over Secret Service logs Judicial Watch requested. The Obama administration has said that documents about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not subject to FOIA.

The White House Propaganda Machine. The White House infamously put restrictions on journalists taking some videos and photos of the President, but has simultaneously released administration-produced content that is little more than propaganda. In November 2013, news organizations sent the administration a letter protesting the treatment: “As surely as if they were placing a hand over a journalist's camera lens, officials in this administration are blocking the public from having an independent view of important functions of the executive branch of government.”

The Obama administration’s actions, the letter stated, have “a direct and adverse impact on the public's ability to independently monitor and see what its government is doing.” The letter asked news organizations to stop using White House produced photos. The White House banned independent photos of events including a meeting between Obama and black faith leaders and between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators and Vice President Joe Biden, as well as a meeting with Hillary Clinton. AP executive editor Kathleen Carroll stated, “are now recorded only by photographers who work directly for the White House, resulting in images that are little more than visual press releases." The White House also prefers to use non-profit group Media Matters to distribute its spin on the news.

Prosecution of Whistleblowers. The Obama administration is the leakiest administration in history. The IRS leaked information about a conservative 501(c)3’s donors; Joe Biden leaked the identity of the team responsible for killing Bin Laden; the Obama administration leaked information about Israeli national security repeatedly in order to prevent an Israeli strike on Iran, among other major leaks. But when it comes to prosecuting press members for cooperating with whistleblowers, the Obama administration’s use of the Espionage Act has been historically heavyhanded.

In 2009, the Justice Department initiated an investigation into James Rosen, after which Attorney General Eric Holder lied, “With regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material: that is not something I’ve ever been involved in, heard of or would think would be wise policy.” Overall, the administration has used the Espionage Act six times to prosecute whistleblowers. Leonard Downie of The Washington Post wrote in October 2013, “The war on leaks and other efforts to control information are the most aggressive I’ve seen since the Nixon administration.”

The Obama administration has been curtailing press freedom – but that hasn’t ended the press’ drool-cup worship for their beloved president. Despite occasional flare-ups, the relationship between the Obama White House and its press lackeys remains strong. Which is not only a testament to the tyrannical tendencies of the Obama administration, but to the cowardice of those who cover it.

Ben Shapiro is Senior Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013). He is also Editor-in-Chief of TruthRevolt.org. Follow Ben Shapiro on Twitter @benshapiro.

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