http://www.democrats.com/view2.cfm?id=4379

09-Sep-01

I predict that within five years, there will not be a single free TV station in this country [I wasn't referring to the costs there], they will all be owned by fascists. From this point, there is no turning back. It's time for Democrats, and those who don't want to see wall-to-wall HATE-TV to take a stand.

Stop Hate-TV Now
Jim Bryant

I predict that within five years, there will not be a single free TV station in this country [I wasn't referring to the costs there], they will all be owned by fascists.

From this point, there is no turning back. It's time for Democrats, and those who don't want to see wall-to-wall HATE-TV to take a stand.

If this is allowed to go down, the only way we will ever be able to reclaim the airwaves is a revolution. We have all seen what they did to radio.

At this point, it's up to Congress to prevent this power play from happening. The precedents are there. Three letters: RCA [Radio Corporation of America].

What Congress does now can prevent a revolution ten, twenty, no more than thirty years down the road.

This country became a country because of the lack of a free press. Instead of illegal printing presses, the future brings pirate radio and television stations as the only way to get free speech onto the airwaves. If allowed to follow the path of radio, the future may bring violent acts against the TV/Radio/Cable/Internet monopolies. Violent takeovers of communications facilities would not be out of the question.

I'm not advocating such violence here, I am simply stating what the inevitable result will be if free speech is ever again to return if such restrictions are lifted now. Congress has the power to prevent this from being the only way to restore such basic freedoms.

We have a see-through wall of shame in Washington DC, built expressly to prevent free speech.

We have a fascist wall of radio stations that is impenetrable at this point in time.

We have "free-speech zones" where protests are supposed to take place, MILES from that which is being protested.

We have police agencies suppressing the right to free speech. When 87-year-old nuns are sentenced to prison time for non-violent protest, you know we have a problem.

To allow ALL media to be monopolized by fascists is to put the wheels in motion for the inevitable result: revolution. Be it ten years from now, be it longer, it will in all probability be required to take back the airwaves.

Of course, it is unknown how the word for such a revolution will get out... The right to read is threatened right now, and the GOP would just love to make mailing lists such as this one as illegal as reading a book without paying for it.

I urge all Congressmen and State Legislators to think of the long-term implications of such actions now. What happened with radio is the prime argument against the power play to sell off the entire media to one or two companies, probably both with identical worldviews.

Goebbels once wrote in his diary that they didn't need to worry about the media, because it was owned by people who supported fascism.

We do not need that ever again. It already exists on radio: WALL-TO-WALL HATE, 95+% owned by two fascism-oriented companies that do not allow free speech that differs with the core principles of fascism.

Are the lawmakers of America going to allow the courts to circumvent OUR right of free speech? If the current attacks succeed, all roads will converge on the path of destruction.

Freedom of speech also includes an inherent right of choice. 100% market penetration implies no choice but one.

The current regulations promote diversity. The current regulations promote free speech. The current regulations promote the right of a citizen to choose what sources he or she gets information from.

Anything less than the current regulations for television and cable promote an environment more restrictive on choice than the USSR or Hitler's Germany. Such a lack of choice will create in the public an overwhelming desire to have choice by any means necessary, which can and probably will include a revolution. Once Pandora's box is opened, only one way will be possible to close it, and that is to destroy the box.

If this is allowed to happen, I would suggest a total rewrite of the anti-trust laws in order to prevent the need for a future revolution. Only tougher anti-trust laws can save America from the inevitable.

If the current Congress fails to deal with this issue, then we need a Congress that takes an interest in the long-term survival of this country. If the current power plays succeed, she won't reach her 250th birthday as a free country, or as a country at all.

The GOP attack on basic freedoms must end now! The right to choice in what one watches or hears is just as important as the right to borrow a book from a friend, or the right to protest.

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