At a hearing held, on November 17, 2010, by the Senate Commerce subcommittee on communications, technology and the Internet, chaired by Democrat Senator John Kerry, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) unbelievably suggested a media death-penalty for FOX News and MSNBC. 

A short, but very informative video provides an excellent insight into the heart and mind of a modern, liberal/ progressive Democrat: Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV). 

Here’s a short extract from what he said: 

"There's a little bug inside of me which wants to get the FCC to say to FOX and to MSNBC: 'Out. Off. End. Goodbye.' It would be a big favor to political discourse; our ability to do our work here in Congress, and to the American people, to be able to talk with each other and have some faith in their government and more importantly, in their future."   
— Reference (1) at bottom. 

Rockefeller makes several things unmistakably clear:  1) He equates FOX News and MSNBC.  2) He says he doesn’t like either.  3) He believes that the government (FCC) should force both of these news organizations off the air.  4) He believes that news agencies such as FOX and MSNBC are spoiling American political discourse and hampering congress’s ability to do their job.   

Whatever else can be said about Rockefeller’s faultfinding critique, it is emphatically biased; and is a shockingly improper suggestion, by a U.S. Senator in a public hearing, directed against two legal news organizations.    Also, frightening, is Rockefeller’s adumbrated vision of the FCC as a media death panel.  I’m sure Rockefeller as well as subcommittee chairman, John Kerry, and multitudes of other liberal/progressives would be delighted to terminate the existence of MSNBC…if only…if only…FOX News could just be silenced. 

But while Rockefeller reveals what he really thinks, what major implication does he not make clear?   

He does not make it clear that he is advocating a disregard for America’s 1st Amendment freedom of the press and free speech.  

But what else is new for liberal/ progressive Democrats? 

Did our Founding Fathers have a crystal ball?  No.  They were simply painstakingly familiar, via hard experience at the hands of King George III, with the mind (thought-process) of tyrants and would-be tyrants.   

Our Founding Fathers adopted the U.S. Constitution with its Bill of Rights for the express purpose of proscribing to the Federal government the sort of power that Jay Rockefeller is advocating in the linked-to video.  That proscription is, in fact, the purpose of the 1st Amendment. 

Here is the Amendment that Rockefeller is perfectly willing to selectively ignore: 

     “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or     prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or     of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition     the Government for a redress of grievances.” 
    —1st Amendment, U.S. Constitution 

Progressives are those Democrats (including Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama) who believe in “progressing” beyond the constraints of the Constitution.  Yeah, we just have to “progress” beyond that old, obstructing, stuck-in-the-seventeenth-century document (Constitution) that makes it unnecessarily difficult for liberal/progressives to enact so-called “rights” that are not enumerated in the Constitution (enumeration? bah humbug).  Modern progressives have not been as successful, as they wish to be, at progressing-beyond the Constitution via the route of passing laws in congress, so they have resorted to three other routes:  1) Activists judges who legislate progressive-legality from the bench, 2) Presidential executive orders, and 3) Federal Agencies.   

Rockefeller is unabashedly advocating that the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), an independent agency created by Congressional statue, ignore the provisions of the 1st Amendment of the Constitution.  And he is a U.S. Senator?  What could be more undermining of our liberty than a U.S. Senator who is willing to bypass the Constitution?  How about a President?  How about members of the Supreme Court?   

In case you haven’t noticed, and I’m sure you probably have, progressives only defend free speech when it’s their free speech.  They never seem to reflect upon the fact that the really obvious need for the 1st Amendment is that free speech will almost always be offensive to someone who disagrees.  FOX and MSNBC obviously offend Rockefeller.  And oh my, we simply cannot allow anyone in these politically-correct times to be offended.  

Never mind that Rockefeller and the American people do not have to watch either of the two networks—they are perfectly free to select others—and those who do watch, do so voluntarily.    

But there’s the rub for liberal/progressives: These self-proclaimed “tolerant” liberal/progressives cannot tolerate any ideas (expressed in speech or writing) with which they do not agree.  And hence they have no faith in voluntary participation by American citizens.  Citizen’s participation must be controlled—of course by liberal/progressives elites who always know better than “the great unwashed middle America” [thank you Katie Couric].  

This is what has driven the ruthless, political-correctness movement that has placed, arbitrarily, out-of-bounds so much needed discourse in our nation.  A prime example is the inability to have an ongoing broad, public debate on numerous protected issues.  Example: if someone, publically, mentions any racism other than white racism, or criticizes Barack Obama, in any way, someone will promptly play the race-card, i.e., label them a racist.  This is not just convoluted logic, it is degenerate ideology—political-correctness run amok. 

Contrary to what Senator Rockefeller implies, it is not freedom of the press and free speechas exercised by FOX and MSNBC that has damaged the political discourse in America.  It is, in fact, totalitarian attempts to suppress free speech, as seen in political-correctness, and as advocated by posturing, self-serving elites such as Jay Rockefeller. 

Our founding fathers knew that the freedoms they sought to secure for us would be forever endangered by the Jay Rockefellers of the world, those smug elites who are always convinced that they know what’s best for everyone else.  That’s why our Founding Fathers bequeathed to us the Constitution with its invaluable Bill of Rights. 

Benjamin Franklin is reported to have provided a concise warning at the close of the Constitutional Convention when he was asked the question “Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”  Franklin’s warning:  “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

Can we? 

FOOTNOTES:

(1) Sen. Rockefeller: FCC Should Take FOX News, MSNBC Off Airwaves