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| Christian Grantham was a student activist in the late 90s and later was a consultant to domestic policy forums for the Clinton Administration as well as events for HRC and GLAAD. | |||
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latest posts
October 16, 2004
Josh Marshall, of Talking Points Memo, doesn't always have a problem with censorship.
It's not a 'fairness' or a free speech issue. It's a massive and quite public case of election and campaign finance fraud. It's the sort of thing that, if it happens, will put the legitimacy of the entire election into doubt.
[Too generous - Talking Points Memo - 10-11-04]
But sometimes he does.
This move, if you think about it, is extraordinary. In a political campaign there are very few forms of political speech -- judged by content -- that should ever be subject to legal proceedings. But to threaten legal action to squelch discussion of a subject that is obviously a very newsworthy and relevant issue -- and one the country could face in the next four years -- is simply astonishing. [Talking Points Memo - 10-15-04]
In the first instance, Marshall was talking about Sinclair airing an anti-Kerry documentary. In the second instance, he was talking about another double standard, this time from the RNC's cease and desist letter sent to Rock The Vote. This is the problem with not maintaining a consistent view on censorship and freedom of speech.
The Republican National Committee has presented quite an audacious case for censoring political free speech when they demanded Rock The Vote stop discussing the draft.
Yet, as you must be aware, this urban myth regarding a draft has been thoroughly debunked by no less than the President of the United States, who explicitly stated, 'We don't need the draft. Look, the all-volunteer Army is working..." as well as the Vice President, who explained, "And the notion that somebody's peddling out there that there is a secret plan to reinstitute the draft, hogwash, not true." Additionally, the Secretary of Defense, "heatedly denied yesterday that the military plans to bring back the draft and boost reserves and National Guard call-ups after the November election. 'That is absolute nonsense,' [Donald] Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee. 'It's absolutely false that anyone in this administration is considering reinstituting the draft.'"
[Letter to Rock The Vote - RNC - 10-13-04 - (view PDF)]
Aside from the free spech issue, it is astonishing the RNC presents President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as credible people on the issue of troop levels in Iraq.
filed under: Free Speech