Free Speech, Enemy of China and Democrats

The Chinese government is again clamping down on what foreign news agencies can distribute about what is happening in China.

China tightened its control over the distribution of news by foreign agencies Sunday, further restricting international access to the already tightly regulated Chinese media market.

The new measures took effect immediately upon being issued by the state Xinhua News Agency. The regulations give Xinhua broad authority over foreign news agencies, requiring them to distribute stories, photos and other services solely through Xinhua or entities authorized by Xinhua.

The new measures are nothing more than the continued suppression of the free flow of information.

President Hu Jintao's leadership has sought to rein in state-controlled media that have strayed from party dictates in search of profits and market share. Journalists and editors have been fired and arrested.

Switch to the just run ABC docudrama, The Path to 9/11, wherein the Clinton Administration was not depicted in the favorable light that Democrats wished to be depicted. Prior to the public showing of the drama, Democrats vigorously attacked and attempted, using a letter to ABC & Disney, to intimidate ABC and Disney into canceling the showing by threatening their FCC licenses to operate.

Alleging that the drama is inaccurate, the Democrats write:

Presenting such deeply flawed and factually inaccurate misinformation to the American public and to children would be a gross miscarriage of your corporate and civic responsibility to the law, to your shareholders, and to the nation.

The previous statement set the stage for the following, which is nothing less than a threat to rescind the FCC licenses of ABC and Disney should the film be broadcast.

The Communications Act of 1934 provides your network with a free broadcast license predicated on the fundamental understanding of your principle obligation to act as a trustee of the public airwaves in serving the public interest. Nowhere is this public interest obligation more apparent than in the duty of broadcasters to serve the civic needs of a democracy by promoting an open and accurate discussion of political ideas and events.

Here are the Democrats signing the letter:

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid
Assistant Democratic Leader Dick Durbin
Senator Debbie Stabenow
Senator Charles Schumer
Senator Byron Dorgan

It is disconcerting to learn that the Democratic leadership has no problem arrogantly and publicly threatening the media when the media does not adhere to the Democratic version of the truth. Kind of resembles the mind-set of the Chinese authorities.