big government, First Amendment, media, privacy, rights

Federal Government?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s recent actions demonstrate a tremendous danger to free speech

Thursday, February 26, 2004
Censorship
The Federal Government?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s recent actions on censorship demonstrate a tremendous danger to free speech.

Once you start down the path of the government deciding permissible content for radio (or TV, newspapers, or the internet) to air, the country is in very serious trouble. A company such as Clear Channel may decide it doesn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t want to air a particular program, but it is entirely different for the government to impose such a decision.

Let people make their own choices, let them control what their own children see. Either you are moral on your own or you aren?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t, you can’t have morality imposed on you from below. What is even worse is that they want to apply similar “guidelines” to cable. There is no case that can be made that the FCC has any jurisdiction regulating cable and yet the FCC wishes to regulate it. Why? Pure power.

Individually, I believe certain things are right and certain things are wrong, the essence of morality. Yet, morality does not come from government regulation. Morality does not come from the FCC. Morality comes from personal knowledge of what is right and what is wrong and acting upon that knowledge to the best of your ability.

Between the Republicans wanting to regulate ?¢‚Ǩ?ìmorality?¢‚Ǩ¬ù and the Democrats wanting to regulate and tax everyone and everything else, the light of Liberty in the United States is looking pretty dim. Very few people in Washington care about freedom, merely their own power to control others.

The question one should ask before giving such power to someone else is, what if someone you don’t agree with is doing the regulating? The Founders recognized this problem and limited the power of government in order to avoid it. Conversely, it is why the power-hungry politicians have worked for 100 years to increase the power of government into every part of your life. Washington?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s goal isn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t your welfare or your freedom, but to increase their power over you and consequently their own importance.

Christian H F Riley, Esq.