Talkshow hosts energized, fighting back for survival

by Wes Vernon, RA Analyst — Here's a preview of what we're in for in the next four years of the much-vaunted "spirit of bipartisanship": In the land of the free, we will witness the spectacle of commentators having to fight tooth and nail just to exercise their free speech rights under the First Amendment.

Rush Limbaugh and other popular hosts possess the best weapons with which to carry on the fight — their microphones. Conservative radio talkshow listeners can use their existing media watchdog groups to confront those who want to obliterate the First Amendment and opposition speech in the public square. Whether it will be necessary to go beyond that and form an independent political group — free of 501(c)(3) (tax exempt) constraints — to go after anti-free speech politicians is best left to those with better organizing experience than this column can offer.

Make no mistake: As this is written, the Obama team and its allies are laying the groundwork aimed at shutting down conservatives on the radio. President-elect Obama has chosen as his transition chief John Podesta, who is president of the Center for American Progress (CAP), a liberal think tank with a strong focus on getting conservative talk radio off the air. And as we explain below, this may involve something even more insidious than merely reviving the so-called "Fairness" (Stalinist) Doctrine. . . . [The enemies of free speech are on the march! ]

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