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

[lonewolf545.livejournal.com]

But theatergoers are not muzzled to prevent them from falsely shouting "fire" in a crowded theater. They just can't rely on a First Amendment defense if they should do so and are prosecuted for inciting a panic.

For eight years I've heard people complaining about what a police state Bush is trying to create. But I've never once seen evidence of him recruiting prosecutors to pursue action against those making "false" claims against him. In this case, Obama is trying to misrepresent his record, and the media is mostly letting him get away with it. He claims to support the Second Amendment, but has NEVER voted for gun rights, and has even refused to sign on to petitions in favor of gun rights. Actions speak louder than words, and Obama's actions have been hostile to gun owners, and on top of that, he's threatening the FCC licenses of media stations that air spots from those attempting to portray those actions.