Here’s the headline from Newsmax:
House Democrats Target Newsmax, Fox News, for De-platforming From Cable
The targeting consisted of two immediate actions.
First was a letter sent to the heads of various carriers of cable news channels by two Democratic members of Congress, both from California: Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-CA). This was quickly followed by the Democrat-run House Energy and Commerce Committee, on which both Members sit, conducting a hearing on the “spread of disinformation.” Here is a link to the letter sent to the CEO of AT&T, which said, in part, this:
“Our country’s public discourse is plagued by misinformation, disinformation, conspiracy theories, and lies. These phenomena undergird the radicalization of seditious individuals who committed acts of insurrection on January 6, and it contributes to a growing distrust of public health measures necessary to crush the pandemic. We are concerned about the role AT&T plays in disseminating misinformation to millions of its U-verse, DirecTV, and AT&T TV subscribers, and we write to you today to request additional information about what actions AT&T is taking to address these issues.
…Experts have noted that the right-wing media ecosystem is “much more susceptible…to disinformation, lies, and half-truths.”4 Right-wing media outlets, like Newsmax, One America News Network (OANN), and Fox News all aired misinformation about the November 2020 elections. For example, both Newsmax and OANN ‘ran incendiary reports’ of false information following the elections and continue to support ‘an angry and dangerous subculture [that] will continue to operate semi-openly.’ As a violent mob was breaching the doors of the Capitol, Newsmax’s coverage called the scene a ‘sort of a romantic idea.’ Fox News, meanwhile, has spent years spewing misinformation
about American politics.”
Let’s be blunt. This isn’t simply chilling, this is straight-up fascism – a deliberate, willful attempt to intimidate both the carriers of cable news outlets and the cable news outlets themselves. Not to mention the anchors and commentators that appear on them. It is dangerous.
The government deciding what can and cannot be carried on cable television?
Note that quote about Fox News. This one: “Fox News, meanwhile, has spent years spewing misinformation about American politics.”
This is a family site so I will be polite: this is baloney.
The sin of Fox News was beginning to break the liberal media’s monopoly on information and its constant presentation in the form of the liberal narrative. This, as I have discussed the other day, is one of the reasons Rush Limbaugh was so important. Rush’s radio show was the first electronic media manifestation of conservatism. A revolution that had begun with the founding by William F. Buckley Jr. of National Review in 1955 and by R.Emmett Tyrrell Jr.’s American Spectator in 1967. Now, in addition to Fox and countless talk radio shows both national and local, there is Newsmax and One America News, not to mention hundreds of sites like this one – which is exactly why this hearing has been held and these threatening letters to company CEO’s have been written.
We live in the day and age of “cancel culture.” What is being attempted here by Eshoo and McNerney is far, far beyond that. As Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said the other day, this is McCarthyism at work. I would go further, as noted.
The government deciding what can and cannot be carried on cable television?
That is fascism. Straight up. And Americans need to stand up and demand that their own Members of Congress step up ASAP to stop this movement in its tracks.
