Democrats’ hot new idea for responsible dialogue is to muscle cable and satellite providers to drop Fox News and other outlets they dislike.
In the runup to a House hearing this week, Reps. Anna Eshoo and Jerry McNerney (both D-Calif.) sent out letters to a dozen providers to silence conservative channels, demanding to know the “ethical or moral principles” behind “disseminating misinformation to millions.”
Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr called out the “concerted effort by Democrats to drive political dissent from the political square.”
Indeed: At the actual hearing, the subcommittee chief, Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) gave the real agenda away: “More free speech just isn’t winning the day over the kind of speech that we’re concerned about.”
Sadly, this kind of intimidation works. As lefty Matt Taibbi notes, the last Democratic push for censorship got Facebook and Twitter to go along, with results like their blackout of The Post’s pre-election Hunter Biden scoops.
The government doesn’t have to actually ban speech by law (in violation of the First Amendment) when politicians simply can threaten the private sector into doing their will.
Too bad Taibbi was one of only a few lonely voices on the left to call out this concerted assault on basic democratic freedoms.