- \n
- More than 4,000 e-mail messages with words like “despicable,” “disgrace”<\/em> and “treason.”<\/em><\/li>\n
- George W. Bush called the ad “disgusting.”<\/em><\/li>\n
- Dick Cheney said the charges in the ad were “an outrage.”<\/em><\/li>\n
- Thomas Davis III, (R-VA) demanded a House investigation.<\/li>\n
- The American Conservative Union filed a complaint with the FEC against MoveOn.org and the Times.<\/li>\n
- FreedomsWatch asked the Times to investigate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
And what did this flurry of hard-core conservative pressure yield? Well, the so-called liberal Times caved in to the rightists and proved the effectiveness of shouting down lawful dissent. Hoyt argued that the Times violated it’s advertising policy which states that they, “do not accept opinion advertisements that are attacks of a personal nature.”<\/em> But criticizing Petraeus’ intention to go before Congress and parrot the views of the White House is not a personal attack. It is a substantive expression of a viewpoint that is shared by millions of Americans. What’s more, Hoyt didn’t bother to level the same complaint against rebuttal ads by Rudy Giuliani or FreedomsWatch. Hoyt went even further in defining the lengths to which he would go to muzzle free speech saying…<\/p>\n
“…I’d have demanded changes to eliminate ‘Betray Us,’<\/em> a particularly low blow when aimed at a soldier.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Had Hoyt been in a position to do so, he would have forced a private advocacy group to alter the message they wished to convey. And as justification, he implies that a general, who is being used as a political prop by the White House, cannot be called to account for abandoning the American people in favor of his boss, the President. Submission accomplished, Mr. Hoyt.<\/p>\n
Another example of the fallout from this campaign of suppression is the refusal of the New York Metro to run an ad from the anti-war group, World Can’t Wait<\/a>. The Metro deemed the ad “too inflammatory”<\/em> for its criticism of Bush’s thinly veiled threats against Iran. WCW has a right to be disturbed by this rejection and they succinctly explain what’s at stake for our nation’s coveted rights under the First Amendment to the Constitution:<\/p>\n
“One of the few avenues to get the truth into the major media – buying advocacy ads – will be in effect closed down if publishers are afraid to sell space. The White House will be the strong-arm arbiter of what is acceptable in terms of political criticism.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
(Visit World Can’t Wait<\/a> for more info about the ad and how to contact the Metro).<\/p>\n
The dominoes are falling. It began with an orchestrated assault on free speech by right-wingers in response to MoveOn’s ad. Then the Senate capitulates and condemns said speech. Then newspapers, feeling the heat, reject ads by independent groups of citizens seeking to engage the public. What’s next? An Official Doctrine of Acceptable Speech?<\/p>\n
![\"null\"](\"http:\/\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1318\/1435460614_5b4561125c.jpg?v=0\")
Finally, MoveOn responded<\/a> to the Times’ assertion that the stand-by rate they were charged was a mistake by volunteering to pay the $77,508 difference. Will MoveOn’s critics, who so vociferously complained about the discount, acknowledge that gesture? Will Rudy Giuliani and FreedomsWatch, two of the most clamorous complainants, who themselves received an equivalent discount, pay back the difference they were afforded? If they do not, they should hear about it, and since the Conventional Media probably won’t do it, it’s up to the blogosphere, again.
<\/p>\nUpdate:<\/strong> Lane Hudson at News For The Left<\/a> has filed a complaint with the FEC against Giuliani. Good luck Lane.<\/p>\n
Also, Giuliani is refusing to pay<\/a> the difference between the stand-by rate he received and the full rate, as MoveOn did. His spokeswoman said that the ad “was placed at the standby rate with no commitment it would run on a specific date.”<\/em> But she is contradicting her boss who you can listen to here<\/a> for yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last week the U.S. Senate voted to condemn the New York Times for running an ad that was critical of the administration and it’s lackey, Gen. David Petraeus. The inevitable consequences of this government imposition of approved thought are already becoming manifest. The Times itself is slamming its ad sales group for accepting the ad […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-press","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-9Z","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1003,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1003","url_meta":{"origin":619,"position":0},"title":"John McCain Claims To Be The One","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/5\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Harmful If SwallowedOn the heels of his ad mocking Barack Obama as a Messiah-like figure, John McCain has now anointed himself as \"The One.\" This new ad declares that \"Washington's broken\" and \"John McCain knows it.\" He admits that \"We're worse off than we were four years ago.\" But without\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":850,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=850","url_meta":{"origin":619,"position":1},"title":"The Media’s Gift To John McCain","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/28\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"What is being called the first general election campaign ad has hit the airwaves. It is a biographical ad for Sen. John McCain that features him in a North Vietnamese hospital bed. Most of the Conventional Media is reporting on this as if it were somehow newsworthy. The New York\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":989,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=989","url_meta":{"origin":619,"position":2},"title":"John McCain’s Play For Free Media Love","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/22\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"John McCain's campaign is floundering and desperate. He is bankrupt both financially and intellectually. And nothing illustrates this more than his pathetic attempts at self-promotion through media manipulation. Rather than present his policies and personal attributes to sway a skeptical electorate, McCain has opted to beg for attention from the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9305,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=9305","url_meta":{"origin":619,"position":3},"title":"Lamestream Humor: NewsBusters Doesn’t Get That The Joke Is On Them","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/17\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Conservative pundits and personalities have been a rich source of material for satire and mockery. However, there are times when their glassy-eyed incoherence inspires more sympathy than ridicule. And this may be one of them. Noel Sheppard, the Associate Editor of the uber-rightist media monitor NewsBusters, posted an item yesterday\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":580,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=580","url_meta":{"origin":619,"position":4},"title":"Networks Refuse To Air Liberal Ads, Too","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/29\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"John Hinderaker at the Power Line blog is expressing some selective outrage over the alleged refusal of MSNBC and CNBC to air ads by a pro-war shadow press office for the White House. 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- George W. Bush called the ad “disgusting.”<\/em><\/li>\n