Bob McCarty Writes

Freedom of the press is likely to suffer under the administration of Barack Obama.  How do I know this?  A look back at issues and events that arose during the 2008 presidential campaign reveals as much.

Click above to view video.

Two weeks prior to the Nov. 4 election, Obama running mate Joe Biden faced tough questions from interviewers at local television stations in Orlando and Philadelphia (see video at right).  Unhappy with such objective treatment at the hands of journalists, the Obama-Biden campaign reacted by banning those stations from future interviews.

While banning local television stations is indicative of the Obama-Biden team’s war against freedom of the press at one level, plans to reinstate the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” — or some version of it — serve as evidence the new administration is prepared to take oppression of First Amendment freedoms to new heights.

Rep. Mike Pence

What, exactly, will that mean for average Americans?  In remarks presented on the floor of the U.S. House 17 months ago, Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) said bringing back the Fairness Doctrine would amount to government control over political views expressed on the public airwaves.

“It is a dangerous proposal to suggest the government should be in the business of rationing free speech,” Congressman Spence added.

“Dangerous” doesn’t being to describe the actual results when power-hungry government elected officials begin to censor freedom of speech and freedom of the press.  If you don’t believe me, ask anyone who is a member of the press in Russia or in one of a handful of former Soviet republics.

Under the headline, The Murdered Journalists of Central Asia, the Central Asia News blog reported the following:

Vladimir Putin

Since the Fall, the former Soviet Union has seen a shocking number of dissidents and reporters murdered: over 37 at the last counting. Naturally, the vast majority of the murderers remain eternal mysteries unless an appropriate scapegoat is found, but let us be frank: it is no surprise that countries run by the KGB, or by the same old Soviet officials and chieftans behave like… the KGB, or the old Soviet system.

Read further, and you’ll find a list of more than 70 broadcasters, journalists, reporters, producers and others in the news business who’ve lost their lives in all manner of horrific ways.

It remains to be seen exactly how far the Obama-Biden administration will go to squelch the free and open exchange of news, information and ideas.  Hopefully, they will not result to using tactics like those employed by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his recently-installed puppet, President Dmitry Medvedev.  Hopefully.  But, again, we don’t know.

Hat tip:  LaRussophobe

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See also:  Georgia Congressman Fears Obama Dictatorship

UPDATE 11/18/08: Yet another example of Vladimir Putin’s “love” for journalists surfaced in the news yesterday.