OPINION:
Cancel culture is coming for Fox News, Newsmax TV, One American News Network, Blaze TV and other smaller conservative news networks. Killing conservative news networks are high value targets for angry progressives.
The left has canceled some big names like J.K. Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter novels, for being “transphobic” and “Today Show” host Billy Bush after he was a central player in the Trump “Access Hollywood” recording. If you express conservative views and have any association with former President Trump, then you are not worthy of participating in society according to the cancel culture warriors. For violating both of these rules, all conservative outlets are in the crosshairs.
Ironically, while targeting conservatives, the lefty thought police ignore violations on their side including Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, who survived allegations of racism, Rep. Eric Swalwell, California Democrat, accused of ties to a communist Chinese spy, and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who used an anti-gay slur toward a Republican U.S. senator. These politicians get a pass, because the same rules don’t apply to liberals. Cancel culture is limited to right-leaning Americans.
Lefty activists know that if they are successful and drive any conservative news outlet into bankruptcy, they will have unlimited power to terminate the conservative movement as a whole. Media Matters, one of the early adherents to cancel culture, is a left-wing group that has dedicated hundreds of hours of work toward bullying corporations from advertising on any conservative network.
A good example of the strategy employed by the left is a recent post on the Media Matters’ website that features a Tucker Carlson screen shot with the allegation “Fox News’ prime-time stars are using their platforms to sow doubts about the COVID-19 vaccines” as if the network is loaded with anti-vaxers. Media Matters has dedicated a whole page to attacking Newsmax TV and One America News Network for the purposes of bully advertisers to boycott these newer large conservative networks.
Welcome to woke America, where the cancel culture activists have accepted the idea of limiting the political free speech. The First Amendment right of free speech is the first natural right recognized in our Bill of Rights, yet the left believes that the views of conservatives are not worthy of protection. Our Founders believed that government shouldn’t punish people for political speech that the ruling class would like to squelch. Now President Biden’s administration, the new ruling class, is expected to use government power to attack America’s right-leaning news networks.
Some on the left nonchalantly toss out radical ideas for adoption by the Biden administration that mirror the actions of totalitarian communist nations efforts to silence dissent. Jim Geraghty cited the fact that “MSNBC’s Anand Giridharadas echo(ed) Max Boot in calling for the Fairness Doctrine to be reinstated and applied to Fox News Channel.”
The Fairness Doctrine requires broadcast license holders to present controversial views in a balanced manner. Undeterred by the fact that the Fairness Doctrine does not apply to cable and satellite news networks because they are not considered broadcasters under the law, these woke talking heads are scrambling for a way to force liberal views onto conservative networks.
Had President Trump issued an executive order to force MSNBC to have balanced discussions, these same Trump haters would have accused the president of tyranny. Now they are the woke tyrants who excuse their tyranny as being akin to the actions of a benevolent dictator.
Bullying corporate advertisers is another front the left has used to attack. On Jan. 25, 2021, the editors of NRO pointed out that “Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times writes, ‘I’d like to see pressure on advertisers to withdraw from Fox News so long as it functions as an extremist madrasa, and cable providers should be asked why they distribute channels that peddle lies.” These tactics have been used in the past against other conservative outlets.
Anti-conservative keyboard warriors’ war on conservative news needs to be resisted. It will end up empowering an authoritarian left seeking to limit free speech rights to a small segment of the progressive movement.
• Brian Darling is former senior communications director and counsel for Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican.
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