CitizenLink® by Catherine O.

Snow

A
ll across the media spec-
trum, whether it be on
the TV, the Internet or in
print, one thing is clear:
There is a growing hostility toward
conservative values — especially
those predicated on faith.
There are three main reasons for
this overt shift: the collapse of tradi-
tional journalism; the donor-driven
transformation of the liberal move-
ment; and the current administra-
tion’s quest for complete informa-
tion control.
This trend should be a cause of
concern for every American. Histo-
ry has proven repeatedly that who-
ever controls the message, controls
society.

Media Disinformation
Since the late 1960s, journalism
has increasingly embraced liberal
secularism. Today, nearly all of the
journalism schools have deemed
superfluous segments of the 1909
Journalist’s Creed (see page 19),
which states, “I believe that the
journalism which succeeds the best
— and best deserves success —
fears God and honors man.”
It should be no surprise then
that liberal elites have dominated
mainstream and publicly funded
news for years. However, over the
past decade, the flourishing Inter-
net, and the success of cable TV and
conservative talk radio, resulted in
George Soros has refined his “blueprint” for instigating revolutionary “change” around the globe,
and he appears to be trying it in the U.S.: Form a shadow government, control the airwaves, bleed the demise of primary liberal media
the state dry, sow unrest, provoke an election crisis, take to the Streets, and, above all, outlast your channels.
opponents.
After the 2004 elections, when

Media Manipulation the liberal Left failed to win — again

— the highest office in the land,
frustrated liberal donors realized

Matters that to win elections, they needed

to win the messaging war. Liberal
billionaire George Soros, whose
Liberals are gaining a frightening grip on sinister “regime change” make-
over handiwork is seen across the
the flow of information — and our freedoms. globe, told The Washington Post,
This is the first in a two-part series looking at the media’s impact on public policy “America, under (President George
and public discourse. W.) Bush, is a danger to the world.

April 2011 Mike Clarke / AFP / Getty Images 17


The Preservation of Civil Discourse
by Chuck Colson
F ree speech and information
are enemies of tyranny. …
Not just tyrannical governments
seek to control the flow of infor-
mation. Seemingly non-political,
benign corporations can play a
major role in the flow of informa-
tion these days. Take Apple, for
instance. How many millions (of
people) use iPhones and iPads to
gather and disseminate informa-
tion? That is why Apple’s deci-
sion to ban the Manhattan Dec-
laration from its iTunes store was
so egregious.
The Manhattan Declaration
stands for traditional marriage be-
tween one man and one woman.
Because of that, Apple arbitrarily
decides that it exposed homosex-
And I’m willing to put my money
where my mouth is. … These aren’t
normal times. The ends justify every
legal means possible.”
At the prompting of Soros, do-
nors heeded the advice of Rob Stein,
a veteran of the Clinton administra-
tion. Stein recommended that do-
nors radically depart from the status
quo and build their own ideological
movement — also referred to as a
“Shadow Party” — forcing politi-
cians to follow their directives, not
vice versa.
According to the 2008 article “In-
side the Disinformation Machine”
by the Capital Research Center
(CRC), donors co-founded the De-
mocracy Alliance, “an ultra-secre-
tive billionaire’s club that wants to
transform America into a European-
style socialist state.”
In addition to building a new
political infrastructure, donors also
fundamentally transformed media.
Their secret? They invested in an
elaborate maze of nonprofits, think
tanks and activist networks to help
manufacture messaging, polling
18
uals to harm. … So it sought to
shut down one side of a critically
important moral debate. Could
other corporations — Google?
Microsoft? — follow suit? What
would be the ramifications for
free speech and discourse?
If there’s an object lesson
about what we’ve been seeing in
the Middle East, or in China, or
Iran, or in corporate boardrooms
it is that every Christian — ev-
ery citizen — should be working
diligently to preserve free dissent
and free civil discourse. They are
the key to the preservation of all
our freedoms. l
Transcript of Chuck Colson’s
“Two-Minute Warning.” Colson
is founder of The Chuck Colson
Center for Christian Worldview.
data and “research” to underscore
their far-Left agenda. Moreover, the
mainstream media — already reel-
ing from buyouts, mergers and lay-
offs — became willing accomplices
and a reliable echo chamber.
Media Mauling
Not leaving anything to chance,
several liberal groups, including
MoveOn.org and the Center for
American Progress, created Media
Matters for America in 2004 to go
on the offensive and attack the press
The Soros-funded Media Matters goes on the attack against Glenn Beck and his guest, Lila Rose,
president of Live Action Films. Rose exposed in over a dozen undercover films Planned Parent-
hood’s apparent complicity in the rape and trafficking of minors.
when it “strays from liberal ortho-
doxy.” Media Matters did not disap-
point. The blog relentlessly attacks
conservative politicians, commenta-
tors and media outlets, in order to
silence debate — even if that means
manufacturing information or dis-
torting the truth.
When Americans pushed back
against the government’s reckless
spending, takeovers and bailouts,
the Soros machine turned its sights
on them. MSNBC, CBS and CNN
echoed without fail the Left’s false-
hoods about Tea Party participants.
Direct attacks on social conserva-
tives have also grown exponentially,
due in large part to their opposition
to the administration’s war on life,
marriage and religious liberties. To
shield the administration’s actions,
the far Left, aided by the media,
hurled accusations of extremism,
racism and homophobia. Yet, con-
servatives held their ground and
their principles — and continued to
press forward.
The Washington Examiner’s Mark
Tapscott wrote on April 11, “Re-
call ‘Crash the Tea Party,’ an effort
exposed earlier this year, designed
to portray the Tea Party as racists
and reactionary throwbacks. Tea
Party hating liberals couldn’t sell
the transparently nonsensical idea
that Tea Partiers are just a bunch of
racists, homophobes and morons,
so the Crash the Party agents on the
Left are infiltrating the Tea Party, in
order to pose as a bunch of racists,
Citizen
homophobes and morons.”
In another vain attempt to under-
cut the conservative movement’s ef-
fectiveness, Soros launched Teapar-
tytracker.org two months before the
2010 elections. According to the
site, its mission was to search out
“racism and other forms of extrem-
ism” within the Tea Party move-
ment. “We call on the Tea Party to
repudiate extremists among their
ranks and join in civil dialogue
with all Americans.”
Election results were a clear indi-
cation that the far-Left’s Orwellian
Newspeak failed to hinder the con-
servative tsunami.
Targeting the Saints
The Media Research Center (MRC),
the largest media watchdog in the
country, tracks and exposes the
media’s liberal bias. David Martin,
executive director of MRC, recently
wrote, “This is not journalism. This
is propaganda and brainwashing. ...
We are being misled by an Obama-
controlled liberal media, and unless
this unholy alliance is exposed and
broken, it will bankrupt our nation
both fiscally and morally.” When
reflecting back on 2010, L. Brent
Bozell III, president and founder of
MRC, wrote, “There is some very
dangerous — as in red-hot incendi-
ary — hatred going on, and it’s be-
ing advanced by the national news
media directly.”
Bozell recounted taxpayer-fund-
ed PBS talk show host Tavis Smi-
ley’s jaw-dropping defamation of
Christians (partial transcript):
“On May 25, (Smiley) was in-
terviewing author Ayaan Hirsi
Ali, a bold critic of radical Mus-
lims — at the risk of a fatwa
against her own life since 2004.
Ali said jihadists ‘got into their
minds that to kill other people
is a great thing to do and that
they would be rewarded in the
hereafter.’
“Smiley shot back: ‘But
Christians do that every single
April 2011
The Journalist’s Creed
I believe in the profession of
Journalism.
I believe that the public jour-
nal is a public trust; that all con-
nected with it are, to the full mea-
sure of responsibility, trustees for
the public; that all acceptance of
lesser service than the public ser-
vice is a betrayal of this trust.
I believe that clear thinking,
clear statement, accuracy and
fairness are fundamental to good
journalism.
I believe that a journalist
should write only what he holds
in his heart to be true.
I believe that suppression of
the news, for any consideration
other than the welfare of society,
is indefensible.
I believe that no one should
write as a journalist what he
would not say as a gentleman;
that bribery by one’s own pocket
book is as much to be avoided
as bribery by the pocketbook of
another; that individual respon-
sibility may not be escaped by
pleading another’s instructions
or another’s dividends.
I believe that advertising,
news and editorial columns
should alike serve the best in-
terests of readers; that a single
day in this country.’
“Jaws dropped. Ali couldn’t
believe her ears: ‘Do they blow
people up every day?’
“Read very carefully Smiley’s
response: ‘Yes. Oh, Christians,
every day, people walk into post
offices, they walk into schools
that’s what Columbine is — I
could do this all day long.’
“Smiley wasn’t done. Next he
smeared the Tea Party move-
ment, repeating falsehoods as
fact: ‘Here are folk in the Tea
Party, for example, every day
who are being recently arrested
for making threats against elect-
standard of helpful truth and
cleanness should prevail for all;
that supreme test of good jour-
nalism is the measure of its pub-
lic service.
I believe that the journalism
which succeeds the best-and best
deserves success-fears God and
honors man; is stoutly indepen-
dent; unmoved by pride of opin-
ion or greed of power; construc-
tive, tolerant but never careless,
self-controlled, patient, always
respectful of its readers but al-
ways unafraid, is quickly indig-
nant at injustice; is unswayed by
the appeal of the privilege or the
clamor of the mob; seeks to give
every man a chance, and as far as
law, an honest wage and recogni-
tion of human brotherhood can
make it so, an equal chance; is
profoundly patriotic while sin-
cerely promoting international
good will and cementing world-
comradeship, is a journalism
of humanity, of and for today’s
world. l
Walter Williams penned these codes
of ethics in 1906, after founding
the Missouri School of Journalism,
now considered to be one of the best
schools in the world.
ed officials, for calling people
‘nigger’ as they walk into Capi-
tol Hill, for spitting on people.’
“What, oh what is the U.S.
Congress doing underwriting
this radical leftist dishonesty
with taxpayer money?”
According to the Culture and Me-
dia Institute, William K. Wolfrum,
a liberal writer for Alan Colmes’
“Liberaland” blog, called for tax-
ing churches. Wolfrum opined, “If
America is serious about reigning in
its ballooning debt, taxing churches
needs to be put on the table. God
has gotten a free ride long enough
19
 Soros’ Media Network
N
amed by the Chronicle
of Philanthropy as the
most charitable donor of
2010, liberal billionaire George
Soros gave a combined total of
$332 million to ultra-liberal or-
ganizations — all to undermine
American values, freedoms and
sovereignty.
DiscovertheNetwork.org con-
tinues to assemble a growing list
of groups funded by Soros and his
Open Society Institute. To under-
stand the magnitude of his media
empire, here is a non-exhaustive
list of groups impacting the in-
formation flow (Full descriptions
can be found at discoverthenetworks.
org):
Air America Radio: (now de-
funct)
American Family Voices: This
innocuous-sounding group cre-
ates and coordinates media cam-
paigns charging Republicans with
wrongdoing.
The American Prospect, Inc.:
in the United States, and it’s hurting
the one true religion in America –
Capitalism.”
Since then, the Alliance Defense
Fund, a Christian legal alliance de-
fending religious liberty, sanctity of
life, marriage and the family, is now
defending several churches across
the country whose tax-exempt sta-
tuses are threatened.
The latest media assault targeted a
dozen faith-based organizations for
their efforts to protect the sanctity
of marriage and religious freedoms
by speaking out against homosexu-
al activists’ attempt to redefine cul-
tural norms. Right before a critical
lame-duck session vote in Congress
on the controversial “Don’t Ask,
Don’t Tell” policy and its underly-
ing law, the Southern Poverty Law
20
Trains and mentors young
Left-wing journalists.
Center for American Progress:
Leftist think tank headed by for-
mer Clinton chief of staff John Po-
desta, works closely with Hillary
Clinton, and employs numerous
former Clinton administration
staffers. It is committed to “devel-
oping a long-term vision of a pro-
gressive America” and “providing
a forum to generate new progres-
sive ideas and policy proposals.”
Common Cause: Pursuing media
reform resembling the Fairness
Doctrine.
Democracy Now!: Appears on
public TV to provide “perspec-
tives rarely heard in the U.S. cor-
porate-sponsored media,” i.e., the
views of radical and foreign jour-
nalists, Left and labor activists,
and ideological foes of capitalism.
Free Press: This “media reform”
organization has worked closely
with many notable Leftists and
Center (SPLC) officially listed these
organizations as “hate groups.”
Their crime? SPLC accused them
of spreading 10 “falsehoods” in the
debate over same-sex marriage.
The media eagerly echoed the
false charges, hoping to chill debate
— and possibly sway some votes.
In its January edition of Orga-
nization Trends, CRC noted: “The
paranoid conspiracy theorists of the
radical left-wing Southern Poverty
Law Center (profiled in the Novem-
ber 2006 Organization Trends) have
struck again. Now they’re labeling
social conservative organizations
as ‘hate groups.’ SPLC has absurd-
ly compared the National Orga-
nization for Marriage and Family
Research Council (and American
Family Association) to the Ku Klux
such organizations as: Media
Matters for America, Air America
Radio, Global Exchange, Code
Pink, Fairness and Accuracy
in Reporting, the Revolution-
ary Communist Party, Mother
Jones  magazine, and Pacifica Ra-
dio.
Independent Media Center: This
Internet-based, news and events
bulletin board represents an
invariably Leftist, anti-capital-
ist perspective and serves as a
mouthpiece for anti-globalization
and anti-America themes.
Independent Media Institute:
IMI administers the SPIN Project
(Strategic Press Information Net-
work), which provides Leftist or-
ganizations with “accessible and
affordable strategic communica-
tions consulting, training, coach-
ing, networking opportunities
and concrete tools” to help them
“achieve their social justice goals.”
Institute for Public Accuracy:
This anti-American, anti-capitalist,
Klan because they are philosophi-
cally opposed to same-sex marriage.
That’s not hate: that’s diversity of
opinion, something the extremists
at SPLC can’t tolerate.”
The SPLC is still pressuring ma-
jor media outlets to not invite these
organizations on their programs —
or run their opinion pieces.
Courage to Stand
When confronted with direct hostil-
ity, the normal instinct is to retreat.
However, former Gov. Tim Pawlen-
ty, R-Minn., cautioned Christians
against retreat — and he, like other
conservatives dealing directly with
the hostile media, can speak from
experience.
During a Feb. 7 interview with
Focus on the Family President Jim
Citizen
anti-Israel organization sponsored
actor Sean Penn’s celebrated visit
to Baghdad in 2002.
Media Fund: Soros played a major
role in creating this group, whose
purpose was to conceptualize,
produce and place political ads on
TV, radio, print and the Internet.
Media Matters for America: This
organization describes itself as a
“web-based, not-for-profit … pro-
gressive research and information
center” seeking to “systematically
monitor a cross-section of print,
broadcast, cable, radio, and Inter-
net media outlets for conservative
misinformation.”
The Nation Institute: Sponsors
Leftist conferences, fellowships,
awards for radical activists and
journalism internships.
National Public Radio: Founded
in 1970, with 90 public radio sta-
tions as charter members, NPR
is today a loose network of more
than 750 U.S. radio stations across
the country, primarily based on
Daly, Pawlenty discussed the Left’s
tactics of exploiting tragedies to
attack conservatives. When the
Minnesota Bridge fell in 2007, he
recalled, “It felt like being mauled
without any referee to step in and
stop it.”
In his book, Courage to Stand,
Pawlenty said of the far-Left, “Once
terrible assertions are made, truth
and logic too often lose out to per-
ception, politics and an avoidance
of journalistic rigor.” Yet Pawlenty
credits his faith for sustaining him
during times of difficulty.
“It’s tempting to want to just
shrink, become smaller and go
home and do our Bible study and
hang out with like-minded people,
but I think we’re doing a disservice
to our faith and our cause by doing
April 2011
college and university campuses.
New America Foundation: This
organization uses policy papers, me-
dia articles, books and educational
events to influence public opinion
on such topics like healthcare and
much more.
Pacifica Foundation: Owns and
operates Pacifica Radio, awash
from its birth with the socialist-
Marxist rhetoric of class warfare
and hatred for capitalism.
Open Society Foundations: So-
ros recently donated $1.8 million
to NPR after the firing of host Juan
William last October, to hire 100
“political reporters” across the
country.” The New York Times re-
ported, “…journalists would not
be part of typical statehouse cov-
erage, but instead would work on
enterprise journalism that looks at
how state government decisions
play out over years and extend be-
yond a single state’s borders.”
Pro Publica: Claims to “expose
abuses of power and betrayals of
that. I think we have to reach out in
effective ways, (as well as) push back
and be involved. This is a contest. In
some ways, this is a battle; not just a
political battle, but a battle on other
levels, as well. We are going to have
to effectively join the battle.”
In his book, he wrote, “I found
myself reflecting on Joshua 1:9,
which says, ‘Have I not commanded
you? Be strong and courageous. Do
not be terrified; do not be discour-
aged, for the Lord your God will be
with you wherever you go.’ That
passage was a source of inspira-
tion and peace. Courage, it seems,
the public trust by government,
business, and other institutions,
using the moral force of investi-
gative journalism to spur reform
through the sustained spotlighting
of wrongdoing.”
The American Prospect, Inc.: A
tax-exempt organization that effec-
tively owns and publishes the far-
Left magazine The American Prospect.
Think Progress: This Internet
blog claims to “push back, daily,”
by its own account, against its
conservative targets, and seeks to
transform “progressive ideas into
policy through rapid response
communications, legislative ac-
tion, grassroots organizing and
advocacy and partnerships with
other progressive leaders through-
out the country and the world.”
Thunder Road Group: This So-
ros-created political consultancy
coordinates strategy for the Media
Fund, America Coming Together,
and America Votes. l
Source: DiscoverTheNetworks.org
is something God expects from all
of us.”
Students of the Bible will recall
Paul’s second letter to the Corinthi-
ans, where he shared how he han-
dled hardships, insults and intense
persecution:
“Three times I pleaded with the
Lord to take it away from me. But he
said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for
you, for my power is made perfect
in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast
all the more gladly about my weak-
nesses, so that Christ’s power may
rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s
sake, I delight in weaknesses, in in-
sults, in hardships, in persecutions,
in difficulties. For when I am weak,
then I am strong.” (12:8-10) l
Paid for by CitizenLink®
21
A Tea Party supporter from Waterbury, Conn., holds up a sign during a Tea Party Express rally on Nov. 1, 2010.
Media Manipulation —
at Taxpayers’ Expense
The Left is eyeing more than just U.S. wallets in its quest for
media dominance.
by Dan Gainor
and Catherine Snow
This is the second in a two-part series
looking at the media’s impact on pub-
lic policy and public discourse.
T
he incredible growth of
technology has birthed
thriving social media
platforms, transformed
modes of communication and un-
shackled Americans from years of
liberal news domination. Liberal
elites, however, are quickly gaining
ground in their attempt to put the
“genie back in the bottle” when it
comes to controlling the media.
6 win mcnamee / getty images
Their plan for the future can be
summed up in two words: Big Gov-
ernment.
Media’s ‘Converging’
Landscape
Computers that first revolutionized
the newsroom soon complicated it.
For more than a decade, media out-
lets have tried to figure out the fu-
ture of their industry. While news
outlets fight to remain viable, they
compete with a growing number of
competitors, ranging from bloggers
to new technologies, including so-
cial media, user-generated content
and the iPad.
In just a few short years, report-
ers went from using the huge com-
puter systems seen in All the Presi-
dent’s Men to the Internet. The local
news monopolies were gone in a
flash.
Tech experts have pushed to-
ward “convergence,” the idea that
all media technologies — phone,
Internet, newspaper, TV and more
— will merge into one platform.
But what does that mean for print
outlets suddenly creating video
or TV networks suddenly writing
stories that compete with The New
York Times?
Well, Newsweek opted to sell
out — rather than close out — and
merged with the liberal website
Citizen
Daily Beast. The New York Times cut
a deal with liberal pollster Nate Sil-
ver to run a political blog. MSNBC
became not only openly liberal,
but overtly pro-Democrat. And the
prominent liberal blog Huffington
Post was bought out for $315 mil-
lion and merged into the AOL uni-
verse, leaving one-time-conserva-
tive-turned-ardent-liberal Arianna
Huffington in charge.
Yet, for now, the Internet remains
the “great equalizer” when it comes
to getting balanced news coverage.
Leveled Playing Field —
For Now
Sites like CitizenLink.com (an affili-
ate of Focus on the Family), Drudge
Report.com, Glenn Beck’s The
Blaze.com and Andrew Breitbart’s
series of “Big” sites — Big Journal-
ism and Big Hollywood — offer
alternative story lines. And groups
like the Media Research Center and
Accuracy in Media track the liberal
media’s coverage and point out the
errors, the hype and the bias.
Over the past few years, liberal
advocacy has become the norm as
Left-wing donors fund new “me-
dia” nonprofits. Operations like
MinnPost.com are replacing local
journalism with a liberal spin. Pro-
Publica, which recently won a Pulit-
zer Prize, is funded by the Sandler
Foundation, which advocates for
“progressive” causes and throws
$10 million a year at the operation.
Conservative websites, on the
other hand, lack the resources and
staff of groups like ProPublica —
and come nowhere near the finan-
cial influence that the Huffington
Post has been able to employ.
And even while conservatives
continue to engage in the bias war,
a new, more ominous and very real
battlefront has emerged — govern-
ment control.
Taxpayer-Funded
Internet Takeover
At the highest levels of the news
business, there has been great de-
May 2011
bate about the future of media. An
increasing number of liberal media
experts want government to sort it
out.
In their ideal world, government
controls the Internet. And the me-
dia that provide the news are either
run by Uncle Sam or funded by him
for at least $35 billion a year. In re-
ality, this plan leaves the taxpayer
footing the bill — while drastically
eroding freedoms, as content be-
comes scrutinized and filtered by
taxpayer-funded bureaucrats.
Columbia University President
Lee Bollinger’s July 14 commentary
“A national fund for
local news should be
created with fees the
FCC collects from
or could impose
on telecom users,
broadcast licensees
or Internet service
providers.”
Len Downie, former executive editor
of The Washington Post and current
vice president of the Free Press.
in The Wall Street Journal was a clas-
sic example of how journalism has
become compromised. Bollinger,
who heads up a college with one
of the most well-known journalism
schools in the country, called for
federal media funding, in a piece
with the ominous headline: “Jour-
nalism Needs Government Help.”
That should terrify old-school con-
servatives who remember Ronald
Reagan’s warning that the “10 most
dangerous words in the English
language are ‘Hi, I’m from the gov-
ernment and I’m here to help.’ ”
Bollinger advocates for the cre-
ation of an “American World Ser-
vice that can compete with the BBC
and other global broadcasters.” And
he wants government to pay for it.
But his commentary was only a
hint at his disturbing agenda for the
news. His book Uninhibited, Robust,
and Wide-Open: A Free Press for a
New Century is far more alarming.
It is a treatise on how government
should control media. The book
calls for the resurrection of the so-
called Fairness Doctrine, a 1949
federal communications policy that
proved to stifle rather than promote
free speech and was overturned by
President Reagan in 1987.
Sadly, Bollinger is not alone in
these desires.
Not-So-Free Press
Since 2008, both houses of Con-
gress, the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) and the Federal
Trade Commission (FTC) have all
held hearings or workshops about
the future of journalism.
Speaking in front of a 2009 event
to push the Left-wing media agen-
da, FCC Commissioner Michael
J. Copps talked about increasing
government funds for news. Copps
told a summit held by the George
Soros-funded and socialist-operat-
ed Free Press: “We’ll need ways to
address market failures in different
ways. For example, should we find
a way adequately to fund PBS or
some other group that is actually
interested in doing the job? Maybe
PBSS — a Public Broadcasting Sys-
tem on Steroids.”
Len Downie, the former execu-
tive editor of The Washington Post
and now a vice president of Free
Press, is one of the leading voices
for a news bailout. An October
2009 report he co-authored about
the future of the news industry of-
fered government aid as one of its
solutions. “A national fund for lo-
cal news should be created with
fees the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) collects from
or could impose on telecom us-
ers, broadcast licensees or Internet
service providers,” he wrote in an
opinion piece that ran in The Post.
7
Note that Downie was pushing for
the FCC to get involved in journal-
ism. He might just get his wish.
Some of the regular faces at these
events belong to Free Press. One of
the founders is Robert McChesney,
a strident and self-proclaimed
Marxist who wants to “save” jour-
nalism. He said, “There is no real
answer but to remove brick by brick
the capitalist system itself, rebuild-
ing the entire society on socialist
principles,” and “We need to do
whatever we can to limit capitalist
propaganda, regulate it, minimalize
it and perhaps even eliminate it.”
McChesney now wants an an-
nual news bailout of $35 billion.
Yet instead of being discredited for
that view, Free Press is right in the
thick of things discussing the future
of news.
A 2009 journalism planning
session at the Aspen Institute was
filled with top media and govern-
ment names like Marcus Brauchli,
executive editor of The Washington
Post, and Jon Leibowitz, chairman
of the FTC. They worked with big-
name liberals and Left-wing organi-
zations, including Craig Newmark,
founder of Craigslist, former Clin-
ton Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright, the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, NPR, Salon, Google,
AP President and CEO Tom Curley, left, appears on The Kalb Report with former President and CEO
of NPR Vivian Schiller, second from left, moderator Marvin Kalb, center, President and CEO of Knight
Foundation Alberto Ibargüen and CNN President Jon Klein, right, to discuss “Journalism in Crisis” on
March 24, 2009, at the National Press Club in Washington.
8 ap / wide world photos
ProPublica, American Public Media
and, of course, Free Press.
The result? Aspen and the Knight
Commission, a panel of 17 me-
dia, policy and community lead-
ers, came out with a report that
recommended increased “support
for public service media aimed at
meeting community information
needs” and made the push for “na-
“We need to do
whatever we can to limit
capitalist propaganda,
regulate it, minimalize
it and perhaps
even eliminate it.”
Robert McChesney, a strident
and self-proclaimed Marxist
and founder of the Free Press
tionwide broadband availability.”
Just the broadband cost alone —
up to $350 billion — could push a
weak U.S. economy to the breaking
point.
As the nation teeters on the verge
of bankruptcy, conservative poli-
ticians on Capitol Hill having to
fight spending-cut battles creative-
ly, while trying to reinstate many
of the freedoms and protections
stripped away over the past two
years. As expected, the Left is work-
ing overtime to thwart their efforts
and advances.
The Fight for
(Gospel) Freedom
Bias and funding battles serve only
as the backdrop to one of the larg-
est, yet scantly covered, congressio-
nal battles. “Net neutrality” — also
known as the Fairness Doctrine for
the Internet — could give the big-
government liberals the dominance
they’ve been seeking.
FCC Commissioner Meredith At-
well Baker opined at a recent House
communications and technology
subcommittee on Net neutrality,
“We have two branches of govern-
ment — Congress and the courts
— expressing grave concerns with
our agency becoming increasingly
unmoored from our statutory au-
thority. By seeking to regulate the
Internet now, we exceed the au-
thority Congress has given us, and
justify those concerns.”
In December, the FCC rammed
through these regulations with
White House support. Phil Kerpen,
vice president of Policy for Ameri-
cans for Prosperity, called the FCC
ruling a “regulatory coup d’état” that
would undermine the free market
use of the Internet, discourage in-
novation and make regulation com-
monplace.
It also set the stage for even
more government regulation of
Internet delivery and content —
a threatening prospect for social
conservatives. Under the guise of
“non-discrimination,” the FCC
could potentially be given authori-
ty to forbid on a case-by-case basis
any practices and content deemed
“unjust” or “unreasonable.”
James L. Gattuso, senior research
fellow in Regulatory Policy in the
Thomas A. Rose Institute for Eco-
nomic Policy Studies at The Heri-
Citizen
From left to right, Marissa Mayer, vice president of Google Inc.’s search products and user experience, Steve Coll, former managing editor of The Washington
Post, Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor in chief of The Huffington Post, Alberto Ibarguen, president and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foun-
dation, James M. Moroney, publisher and CEO of the Dallas Morning News, testify on the future of journalism before the Senate Committee on Commerce,
Science and Transportation on May 6, 2009.
tage Foundation, says the Net neu-
trality vote is an early test for this
Congress.
“The FCC’s Net neutrality vote
in many ways represents exactly
the sort of regulatory overreach and
disregard for legal norms that vot-
ers rejected so forcefully last No-
vember,” he said.
On March 9, a House panel vot-
ed to void the regulation. Conserva-
tives only control one chamber in
Congress, which makes it unlikely
the GOP will be able to stop the
FCC for now. Numerous social and
economic conservative groups are
also engaged in the battle to pro-
tect free speech — from filing legal
challenges to galvanizing the grass-
roots to contacting Congress.
Craig Parshall, general counsel
for the National Religious Broad-
casters (NRB), wrote about a cre-
ative project that it has recently
launched:
“NRB, through its General Coun-
sel’s Office, has commenced a proj-
ect that will monitor the threats of
anti-Christian censorship on new
media platforms, as a result of de-
cisions and practices in both the
private sector, and those made in
the public, governmental sector.
We will be releasing periodic re-
ports on what we see, and what we
think should be done about it. The
May 2011
project is named after John Milton,
the 17th century poet (Paradise
Lost) and apologist for Christian
ideals. Milton made history’s first
and most notable moral argument
against England’s tyrannical restric-
tion in 1643 on the freedom of
“The FCC’s Net
neutrality vote in many
ways represents exactly
the sort of regulatory
overreach and disregard
for legal norms that voters
rejected so forcefully
last November.”
James L. Gattuso, senior research
fellow in Regulatory Policy at
The Heritage Foundation
the printing press. The Gutenberg
printing press changed the world,
not merely because it ushered in a
new method of distributing infor-
mation, but because it made the
printed Bible universally available
and accessible.
“Here at NRB, we intend to
fight for the freedom of Christian
communicators to communicate
the Gospel of Christ on every me-
dia platform known to man. It is
a battle no less momentous than
the struggle over the freedom of
the printing press. In his defense
of freedom of access to the me-
dia technology of his day, Milton
wrote that he ‘who kills a man kills
a reasonable creature, God’s image;
but he who destroys a good book
[through tyrannical, regulatory
censorship], kills reason itself, kills
the image of God, as it were in the
eye.’ Our prayer and our mission
is that every eye, and every ear,
through every form of electronic
and digital media, will have access
to the Word of God. As long as that
happens, men and women, as well
as boys and girls, will be able to
fully and freely confront the revo-
lutionary, life-changing claims of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the
Word made flesh.” l
Dan Gainor is vice president for Busi-
ness and Culture for the Media Re-
search Center.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Learn more about the conservative
media alternatives mentioned above
(not exhaustive): CitizenLink.com;
DrudgeReport.com; TheBlaze.com;
BigGovernment.com; BigJournalism.
com; MRC.org (Media Research
Center Network); and AIM.org
(Accuracy in Media).
ap / wide world photos 9