Redstate

By smagar Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

LIBERTAS has long been an excellent source for insightful conservative commentary on film and Hollywood. It is doing excellent work on the Path to 9/11 controversey. Its proprietors, Jason Apuzzo and Govindni Murry, are pointing out some wonderful (for us) opportunities to comment on Democratic hypocrisy on this whole issue.

Did you know, for example, that the DISH network aired Fahrenheit 9/11 RIGHT BEFORE the 2004 Presidential election? Was anyone's broadcast license threatened over that? Well, no!

But, I thought it was the Republicans who were blowing a "chill wind over Hollywood"? Right, Mr. Clooney?

Read on

All emphasis is added.

Senate Democrats, in an oily and misleading letter to Disney’s Rober Iger, are now implying they may revoke ABC’s license to broadcast over the public airwaves if ABC broadcasts The Path to 9/11. These are the same Democrats, incidentally, who may be running the Senate in a few weeks.

This is a horrifying and ugly development. I’m not aware of a circumstance in my lifetime in which filmmakers’ right to free expression has been so endangered. Particularly disgusting to me is that these Democrats (Harry Reid, Dick Durbin, Debbie Stabenow, Charles Schumer and Byron Dorgan) have singled-out writer-producer Cyrus Nowrasteh and “conservative blogs” of a certain “political leaning.” It is apparently now becoming illegal for conservatives to actually make films in Hollywood.

Make no mistake about what’s going on here: the Democratic Party is hearing the first whispers of opposition to their dominance of Hollywood, and they’re trying to crush that opposition right now. They are now threatening to revoke ABC’s license, merely because ABC may have the temerity to broadcast a film critical of the Clintons. [The miniseries is also critical of the Bush Administration, and of Condi Rice in particular.] If this is allowed to happen, the consequences for free speech in this country will be dire. And the damage may already have been done

Here at LIBERTAS we urge the public to make noise over this, and to demand that Democrats back down. What is at stake is nothing short of the 1st Amendment.

Here's the implied threat in the Senate Democrats' letter to ABC, for those who haven't had a chance to see it yet:

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.

Hmmmm....feels like a free-speech-chilling wind to me!

Apuzzo then gives us some details on the time when the shoe was on the other foot--the premiere of F/911

...Richard Ben-Veniste, then-DNC Chair Terry McCauliffe, then-Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, Montana Sen. Max Baucus, South Carolina Sen. Ernest Hollings, Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Sen. Barbara Boxer, Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, New York Rep. Charles Rangel, and Washington Rep. Jim McDermott were among those who happily attended the premiere of Fahrenheit 9/11 in Washington, D.C. back in June of 2004.

And Michael Moore was also invited into the Presidential box at the DNC convention that year. His Fahrenheit 9/11 was filled with so many lies and inaccuracies as to be astonishing - yet, unlike The Path to 9/11, the film was actually passed-off as a ‘documentary.’

Fahrenheit 9/11 was later broadcast on the DISH Network on November 1st, 2004, right before the Presidential elections. The DISH Network is owned by EchoStar, which receives its DBS license from the Federal Communications Commission. I’m not aware that Republicans ever threatened EchoStar with losing its license as a result of broadcasting that film.

I'm not aware of any such threat, by any current government leaders on any broadcast entity, either. Until this week, that is.

So, who's the source of that "chill wind", Mr. Clooney?

Frankly, I don't have much to add to what Apuzzo, Murty and the other contributors at LIBERTAS have to say. Consider this a "bird dog" diary then, an attempt to find/highlight some quality work by conservatives with experience in Hollywood.

Bravo Zulu, LIBERTAS