Let's hear it for the First Amendment

[unixronin]

Well, unless you're on the Obama campaign, that is.  NewsMax reports that the Obama campaign has been sending "intimidating cease-and-desist letters" to radio and TV stations that air anti-Obama ads, including NRA ads, threatening them with loss of their FCC licenses, and is now urging Obama supporters to write letter campaigns to their local stations demanding that they not run the NRA's ads documenting his long-standing anti-gun record.

This is the second time the Obama campaign has been caught trying to suppress an opposing ad.  Remember when the PSA aired pointing out Obama's connection to a former Weather Underground leader, and Obama's campaign said the people running the independent nonprofit that put the ad together should go to jail for it?  Saying that criticism — even factual criticism — of even a Presidential candidate should be a crime punishable by jail is pretty scary, and not something I want to see in any Presidential candidate.  That's only about one long step away from declaring any criticism of the administration, justified or not, to be sedition.

It's been said that the Second Amendment is the most important in the Bill of Rights because it protects the First.  It looks like the Obama camp dislikes both, and is quite willing to attack the First Amendment to try to prevent the NRA from exposing Obama's dislike of the Second to voters, so that Obama can continue to stand up and say "I'm not anti-gun.  Really.  Would I lie to you?"

(And before any Obama apologists stand up and start accusing bias, yes, I already know the writing of the NewsMax article is hardly what could be called neutral.  I'm guessing it's an NRA-PVF press release published as-is.)

Comments

[mazianni.livejournal.com]

This advertising is false, misleading, and deceptive," Bauer continued. "We request that you immediately cease airing this advertising."

That's about the third paragraph from the bottom of the letter. Actually, the letter says advertisement, not advertising.

[beckyzoole.livejournal.com]

I was wrong. I missed it, and my computer did too.

I had run a search for the phrase "We request that you immediately cease airing this advertising", and didn't find it (and wouldn't have, because, as you point out, the word used was advertisement, not advertising).

But then a ran a search for the word "cease" and didn't find that either. I think the quality of the photocopy or scan is not good enough; for some reason Adobe couldn't read the word "cease". I didn't remember seeing it, so I thought the quote was invented.

Thank you for pointing to the third paragraph from the end.