In a scathing op-ed, Daily Wire editor Ben Shapiro explained the latest push by the left to eradicate conservatism: calling on major broadcast corporations to evict conservative channels from the airwaves and the web.
“This week, Democratic Reps. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Jerry McNerny, D-N.J., sent out a series of letters to America’s largest communications corporations: AT&T, Alphabet Inc., Cox Communications, Dish Network, Comcast, Apple, Amazon and others,” Shapiro prefaced his editorial. “Their letters demanded answers from these corporations on one simple topic: Why would these platforms continue to allow the dissemination of ‘misinformation’ from conservative outlets?”
“Our country’s public discourse is plagued by misinformation, disinformation, conspiracy theories, and lies,” Eshoo and McNerny wrote. “These phenomena undergird the radicalization of seditious individuals who committed acts of insurrection on January 6th, and it contributes to a growing distrust of public health measures necessary to crush the pandemic. … Are you planning to continue carrying Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN?”
Although the call by the representatives to censor conservative media is a clear vilation of the First Amendment, Shapiro explains how Democrats have crafted “a convenient workaround:”
This clever gambit is rooted in the conflation between “disinformation” and “misinformation” promulgated by the establishment media since 2016. After the 2016 election, the media went berserk with the theory that Hillary Clinton had lost the election thanks only to Russian interference. “Russian disinformation” — meaning false information promulgated by a foreign government for the purpose of interfering in domestic politics — had twisted the election. Now even disinformation promulgated on American soil is protected by the First Amendment. But it soon became clear that the authoritarian left wasn’t interested merely in active disinformation springing from foreign sources. It was troubled by any narrative or information that contradicted its point of view. This information could quickly and easily be labeled “misinformation.”
And “misinformation,” it said, had to be policed.
Rather than allow unpopular views to compete in the marketplace of thought, the left contends that conservatives must now be censored to prevent “incitement.” Although there is a legitimate legal standard for incitement, the left has successfully flattened the meaning of the word to “include any verbiage that elicits strong emotions … so long as conservatives are responsible for such verbiage. Thus, it’s possible incitement to call people by their biological pronouns but perfectly innocent fun to wink and nod at widespread looting and rioting,” Shapiro declares.
Now, Democrats “have turned toward hijacking the private instruments of informational dissemination, all in the name of reestablishing an informational monopoly,” Shapiro explains, noting that the monopoly has been challenged for decades in the politically pluralistic culture of America.
What they’ll never realize, Shapiro concludes, is that they are the greater threat to the democracy they claim to defend:
“The establishment media are fond of saying that we’re experiencing a crisis of authoritarianism in America; they point to the criminal acts of Jan. 6 and suggest that right-wing authoritarianism threatens democracy itself. The far greater threat to democracy, however, lies with an authoritarian left that is now ascendant in virtually every powerful institution in America.”
Amen!! This is the dark, difficult road ahead toward the salvaging of our civilization, folks. Nobody said it would be easy!
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