... which is what , which is what Congressmen Gus Bilirakus (R-FL) and Joseph Crowley (D-NY) apparently have in mind with proposed legislation that would make it illegal for satellite carriers in the US to allow the broadcast of Al-Manar, Al-Aqsa, and other radical Muslim channels.
In fact, the bill would legally define those satellite carriers as terrorist organizations if they broadcast these channels.
Don't get me wrong: I am not a lover of programming inciting people to kill Americans or Jews, or soliciting money for Hamas, but....
1) In this broadband world you are nuts to believe that this action will do anything to prevent their message spread, since you can see their programming on the web virtually any time.
2) This legislation, if passed, would then allow the government to move in the direction of making satellite carriers legally liable for the content of every single channel they carry. If experience is any guide, this will eventually lead to them becoming more and more conservative in their selection, because who knows who a pro-Greenpeace program on the gardening channel might strike as domestic terrorism.
3) It is the perhaps intended effect to say to Americans, Look, trust us: we'll keep anything too disturbing off the air. Don't worry your pretty little heads about it. Move along. Nothing to see here.
5 comments:
I thought we had a first amendment? Oh, only when it shows what they the Congressman want us to see? Government must protect us from ourselves.
In my last job, I routinely read or went to Arab News sites to get a different perspective.
This is a stupid piece of legislation, I doubt it will make it very far.
That's not racist at all.... naw.
Downright idiotic. Like somehow sticking our collective heads in the sand will make it all go away.
Silly.
Bah, I'm not worried. Dana convinced me already that giving the government broad powers to define terrorism and to limit the rights of the terrorists is a good thing.
Are you kidding me. This is an absolute violation of the press. And who says they would talk about killing americans and jews...what bullshit.
This is just another ruse to make sure nothing about what is happening on the ground to the terrorism (war) being let on the muslim world, doesnt get carried in America! This is global censorship...do they think the american people are so gullible and stupid, that hearing news from a different perspective might challenge the right wing neo cons both demorat and repuke! Give me a break. I have watched many news programs from middle east and never have I ever heard anything mean or nasty about anyone. They do something the american media doesnt do....report the news as it is on the ground...no opinion, no commentary to twist it. DishNetwork has a whole list of channels you can watch, guess this means they will be gone too.
Good post, Steve. This legislation is despicable.
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