Rumblings of “1984″: “Big Brother” Blitzkrieg & Boycott Campaign Orchestrated by White House: Glenn Beck, FOX News Attacked, Freedom of Speech Hanging in the Balance
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on August 14, 2009
Are rumblings of heavy-handed, thuggish efforts to stifle and rip away Constitutional freedoms, as were implemented in Orwell’s chilling 1984, growing in the White House? Is freedom of speech being threatened by our government? Is socialism taking over America?
It certainly looks like it.
Appalling behavior by some Democrat government officials has gone on for weeks. Elected government officials have been deriding and mocking American town hall protesters, calling them “Nazis” and “political terrorists,” others have tried to silence members of Congress for not supporting the government-run health care package or the failed porkulus bill, still others have slyly planted shills in ObamaCare forums or sent ACORN and SEIU thugs to cause upheavals at the protests. In St. Louis, a black conservative was brutally attacked by left-wing union thugs. The White House wants citizens to spy on neighbors and report any “fishy” opposition. Police have been accused by the president, without facts or evidence, of being racist.
It’s taking an even more insidious turn this week. Conservative talk show host Glenn Beck is now reportedly being Chicago-style targeted by the Obama administration for speaking out against the racism and Marxism/socialism that he sees taking root in our present government. The plan is to discredit and vilify Beck as a racist for his candid observations of the president’s actions during the Henry Gates-Cambridge police disaster, as shown in the video below. Already, sponsors have been bullied to remove their advertising from Beck’s show on FOX.
Any dissension and opposition to Pres. Obama is now under attack… freedom of speech is hanging by a thread. Americans are being silenced and squashed.
Watch the video, read the commentaries… you decide. And if you decide this race-baiting attack on Glenn Beck is wrong, call your senator, contact FOX, contact the sponsors who were bullied, contact the White House. Don’t be silent. Silence is acceptance.
Glenn Beck Exposes Henry Louis Gates as another Marxist friend of Obama’s, Parallels Drawn to Rev. Wright | July 2009
From Human Events: Hollywood Hit on Glenn Beck
…Claiming that Beck is race baiting “Color of Change” has bullied at least five of Beck’s big advertisers — SC Johnson, Progressive Insurance, GEICO, Procter & Gamble and Lexis Nexis — to pull their ads from Beck’s national cable program. The activist group has hired Hollywood’s high profile publicist Ken Sunshine to further instigate the boycott.
Sunshine’s superstar clientele is huge (and very very liberal). The list includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Barbra Streisand, Michael Moore, John Mayer, Ben Affleck, Justin Timberlake, and recently the Jackson family just to name a few…
The August political dynamic has been almost entirely negative for the Democrats, with the town hall protests against Obamacare seeming to grow more forceful each day. Obama’s polls have slipped below 50% and — contrary to claims only a week old — unemployment is back on the rise.
The Obama administration and Congressional Democrats are desperate to get Obamacare off the front pages for a few days. The orchestrated campaign against Beck — which is just now getting off the ground — could be their key.
Will the Hollywood left — always eager to help Obama — choose this time to mount an even larger attack campaign against Beck and FOX News lead by Sunshine and his A-list clientele?
From The Foundry:
White House Battle Against Free Speech Grows
By Rory Cooper
August 13, 2009Yesterday, White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton said on Fox News: “This White House supports free speech.” Now, it is hardly comforting to know we have a White House that feels it has to defend that position. It’s akin to saying, ‘this White House support oxygen,’ but the behavior of senior White House officials over the past few weeks has brought us to this point. A concerted and coordinated effort against cable news channels and their personalities; radio hosts and regular citizens from every walk of life has made Americans across the country fearful of a vengeful Obama administration.
By now, it is common knowledge that the White House asked neighbors to report other neighbors who may disagree. They defended their White House “list” by saying that names wouldn’t be kept. Well, either they’re keeping a list or they’re destroying public records, but either way something wrong is occurring. America agreed.
Then the White House introduced the term “Astro Turf” into our August lexicon by accusing soccer moms, senior citizens, students and regular concerned Americans of getting on buses and disrupting the left’s attempt to overhaul one sixth of our economy without opposition. Speaker Pelosi jumped in on this attack referencing swastikas, and Congressman Brian Baird (D-WA) calling protesters “brown shirts.” Townhalls are apparently supposed to be lovefests as demonstrated by the President’s pep rally yesterday in Portsmouth, NH.
Well these attacks didn’t work either. Instead, townhalls grew more crowded and those folks were able to capture on video Members of Congress taking cell phone calls during questions, refusing to speak to their constituents and union intimidation. So now what? Well if you can’t silence the people, silence the news. The White House yesterday pivoted to blaming Fox News and cable networks for the problem of dissent. A straw man that they have successfully attacked in the past.
But the new development is their potential use of closely affiliated groups, like one recently operated by top White House advisor Van Jones, to launch organized attacks on commentators like Glenn Beck and Fox News. Apparently Beck, certainly no friend of the Obama administration and never advertised as such, said something that the White House chorus deemed offensive enough to launch an underground attack on his show’s advertisers. Whether Beck said something controversial or not about the President’s reaction to the Henry Louis Gates arrest is not the question. But is it appropriate for the White House to be judge and jury of the fourth estate, and are they using Chicago-style tactics to silence their critics?
As of two days ago, Color of Change changed their website bios to marginalize its founder Van Jones’ role in the organization. The group itself is small in support with barely 500 facebook followers, just over 100 twitter followers. This organization is not built on massive grassroots organizing. But with a small following, they were able to convince a handful of advertisers to abandon the Beck show. Making fun of cable news is one thing, but is the White House associated with a campaign to not only discredit their critics but also strangle the financial footing these businesses rely on? These are questions that need answering.
One would expect a sympathetic journalist to push a ‘Fox News extremist agenda’ story in the days to come to solidify that the White House was right, and cable news was wrong all along. President Obama should denounce any group that works to silence White House critics, especially one of his top advisor leads. He should open up his townhalls to a legitimately open audience and instead of blaming the opposition for the state of his health care plan (whatever that plan may be); he should go back to the drawing board and develop an alternative that recognizes the overwhelming voice of America heard this August.
Additional reading:
Rep. Thaddeus G. McCotter (R-MI), Big Hollywood: A Health Dirge Night: President Obama’s Lefty Health Club Band
Smart Girl Politics: Support Glenn Beck – Sign Petitions & Free Faxes @ CIA (Citizens in Action)
Wake Up Black America: A demonstration of “astro turfing” Obama style. and Did Sarah Palin force the Senate to drop the “end of life” provision? and Does the nation still have a hangover from the “beer summit”?
Just Americans Making Ethical Statements Weblog: WH Green Czar Van Johnson linked to Group attacking FOXNews and Glenn Beck and Obama “Brownshirts” Attack Glenn Beck; This is “UN- American”!!
Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: Ten Top Reasons I’m Happy About The Glenn Beck Boycott
Michelle Malkin: Breaking: Finance Committee to drop end-of-life provision and NBC: “YES WE DID” and Lanny Davis wants you photographed and investigated and Protest a health care town hall; more scenes from the counterinsurgency
RedState: Obama Brownshirts Try to Silence Glenn Beck
Vets On The Watch: The Obama Prayer
Save Capitalism: Peter Schiff hit-piece by MSNBC
Orson Bean, Big Hollywood: A Beer is Fine But Forgiveness is Divine
GayPatriot: Making Gates’ issue a racial one prevents us from moving beyond race
Gary Graham, Big Hollywood: The Great Beer Summit of 2009
Goodtimepolitics: Police officers across the country have a message for Obama
Scared Monkeys: Barack Obama Can Apologize for America, But He Can’t Apologize to Sgt Crowley for his Race Card Comment Regarding Professor Gates
Doug Powers, Michelle Malkin: Beer Summit: The final summary and Beerestroika: Drinking to distraction
Legal Insurrection: The Thanksgiving Summit
Hot Air: Video: Gibbs rips media for moronic coverage of moronic White House publicity stunt
Burt Prelutsky: ObamaCare is Really ObamaDoesn’tCare — So Vote For Gracie
Libertarian Humor: Obama Thugs 2- This Time It’s Wearing a Skirt
Gateway Pundit: Joe the Plumber: Obama’s Answer Was “Right Out of Karl Marx’s Mouth” (Video)
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Wealthy Democrat Supporters Dumbfounded… Realize Obama Will Take Their Money
The American Pundit: Poor Babies: Obama Staffers Exhausted by the Stress of Wasting Money
About the author
This is absolute hysteria. I’m officially disgusted with the media hype. We should be debating these issues not screaming at the tops of our lungs, defacing photographs of elected officials and blurting out epithets. Americans are acting like uncontrollable, squabbling children. It’s not even Orwellian, or Shakespearean…. It’s a cheap Showtime drama. Get your heads out of the television.
Freedom of speech is reserved for you, but not conservative talk show hosts? This is not media hype, but government tyranny.
Naive and tragic that you can’t see the growing problem with this administration. Did you even READ this article or all the accompanying links to see that losing the First Amendment, via the White House, only starts here… and then spreads to ALL Americans.
It’s already happening with congressmen calling American protesters (protected by the Constitution) either “Nazis” or “political terrorists.” Our founding fathers gave us the right to question and dissent against the government, to prevent power grabs from greedy, authoritarian members of Congress or the White House to wield power over the people.
A few may be going overboard, but are NOT terrorists. Most of the people decrying this ramming of the socialist health care bill have been well within their rights and well within the law. Did you speak out when much, much worse was levied against GW Bush, calling him a terrorist, demanding he be murdered, and hanging effigies of him outside college campuses?
We were promised by Pres. Obama that all legislature would be transparent, that cameras from C-SPAN would be showing every step of the process. HA! Has never happened, and now, we’re expected to be quiet and polite and accepting when this horrible bill hasn’t even be fully written? No debate from them… rather, “this is it, you have to accept it.”
No we don’t.
In fact, why are decent Americans so happy and willing to be controlled by the television and its pundits? When you watch these shows you are listening to someone else’s opinion and adopting it as your own. You lose your ability to think for yourself. Read a book! Go out into the community and debate rationally. This stupid drama between O’Reilly and Olberman is indicative of the state of the nation.
Just like your argument on England (where you argued that the ban on fox hunting caused rising crime in England – an absolute fantasy!), you are not in possession of all the facts and have effectively joined a mob like a sheep.
Your attacks are amusing. “Decent Americans so happy and willing to be controlled by the television and its pundits?” Like those who simper and coo over Obama during his press conferences with easy, bunny questions? When CNN anchors attack tea party protesters? When Media Matters affiliations attack anyone who doesn’t go lockstep with Obama? THOSE media pundits?
I’ve read “Rules for Radicals” and “Liberty and Tyranny” this month. And television, whether you like it or not, is a major influence in this country. If it weren’t, Barack Obama would never have been elected and Sarah Palin would never have been so viciously and undeservedly attacked.
Most of my information does NOT come from the news (biased and in the tank with Obama) but from international newspapers and conservative blogs and news sources.
I’ve never argued a bloody thing about fox hunting. Do a search… FOX may come up, as in the FOX news station, but I’ve never written about fox hunting. Videos included for people to view may have covered fox hunting, but you’re sadly twisting (again) what I’ve actually written or expressed as my opinion. And you’re welcome to your opinion. Go for it. But the truth is, you’re wrong about the state of affairs. And you wanting Americans to be nice and polite and docile about socialized health care is a recipe for doom. And very uninformed.
Thanks for the convo… must finish up writing another piece that will likely torque you.
C-span should be showing every step of the process: just like Cheney’s Energy deal with the Big Oil? During this deal, he virtually handed the US to Big Oil on a plate and WE ALL COMPLIED. But because you are a republican, you let them do it.
See, here’s the trouble: I agree with some conservative issues, but I just can’t get behind the hypocrisy.
I didn’t ask for C-SPAN… Obama promised it many times during his campaign and thereafter. Cheney never promised such a thing, so you’re twisting what Obama lied about to Cheney for your own purposes. When did Cheney lie?
Freedom of speech died under the Patriot Act during which time they commanded AT&T to tap our phones.
Tap the phones of suspected terrorists and associates – there was ample reason to suspect individuals, and never did they willy nilly tap all phones. Not tap YOUR phone or mine. Just those where there was reasonable evidence to suspect al Quaeda affiliation.
While I was never comfortable with that, face it – we have not had another attack on US soil since. So, yeah, I’m OK with it.
Cheney lied when he said he knew for a fact that there were weapons of mass destruction and that he knew where they were. Then he used this “fact” as a pretext to invade Iraq.
There couldn’t be a better example: Cheney lied to kill people, Obama lies (yes, I agree) to save people.
I actually watch C-span, by the way.
Old news. And there WERE WMDs, but because of the Democrats being involved in the delay in going after them, they were moved.
Obama lies to turn America into a socialist nation… another Cuba, a la Saul Alinksy. I’d trust Cheney to do what was best for America in a heart beat over the empty suit in the White House.
Cheney also lied about:
Sadaam’s ties to Al Queda (absolute rubbish)
Yellow cake uraniam – he said they had proof that Sadaam had tried to buy yellow cake uranium in Nigeria when the “proof” was forged. Then he outed a CIA operative – his own patriotic American worker – who had the audacity to tell the truth on the matter. Valerie Plame’s career was ruined! I was outraged at this: that he sold out one of his own.
I do not believe Cheney lied. I believe the MSM and Democrat leaders had a hand in misconstruing the realities so as to diminish and undermine Bush and our military efforts in Iraq. So many have lied, it’s a nightmare. But I do not believe now, nor ever have believed, that Cheney lied.
It’s not old news. American soldiers are still dying because of Cheney’s lies. And there were no WMDs and no yellowcake uranium.
You may not care that 3000 Americans died because of Cheney’s lies, but I do. Cheney, who “had better things to do” than fight in the Vietnam war, almost destroyed the country. The Patriot Act, which is recent history not old news, allowed the government to tap your phones. Do you agree with that?
But anyway, as an English person I’d like to offer some information about UK healthcare system to you, which has its flaws, I’ll admit. My 86 year old Grandma was diagnosed with cancer last week. It’s late stage ovarian. She already has her surgery date for 28th August. So it’s a lie that socialist healthcare provides for voluntary euthanasia, just so you know.
I already addressed much of this, and as far as your grandma being able to get her surgery sooner than most is a good thing. So you should be happy. Not everyone in the UK would agree that they have had such success. Daniel Hannan is one of those in Parliament who is adamantly against the UK’s socialized health care system.
Just yesterday, it was in the news that the “death panels” section of our health bill will indeed be deleted (i.e., “voluntary euthanasia” as you put it).
And I’d like to ask one last thing: why do you trust a Republican to do what’s right for the country?
Better still, why do you trust a Democrat?
I have always trusted our leaders until they’ve proven they cannot be trusted. I was disappointed in Bush during his final months in office, but never distrusted his motives to keep America safe. I do not trust Obama to ever have America as his first and foremost concern. His agenda is too self-serving and anti-citizen… and on that note, I must leave for work.
Adieu… good debate. Come back again!
Moving on from my previous question: why do you trust rich elitist white men to serve the hardworking conservative American? I’m sincerely flummoxed by this. It’s just like a monarchy over here. I don’t agree with socialism and if I was back in the UK now, I would vote conservative, but rich white men do not have our interests at heart. Really they don’t.
“Rich white men” are also “rich white women” and “rich black men” et cetera. Our government is comprised of all, unlike other nations. So blaming men and not women is biased, blaming whites and not other races is also biased.
Power is a tool that can used in many ways… for bad and for good, by any race or gender. Democrats, Republicans, Independents… all have the good and the bad. Not all are elitists, not all are in the game for themselves, not all are self-serving asses. But many are. It simply isn’t limited to “rich white men.”
Must go to work… bye.
I don’t trust a democrat! Well, not blindly anyway. Can’t stand Joe Biden.
LOL – absolutely agree with you!
Adios!
Yes, good debate! I appreciate it.
[...] evidence. In other words, people are put off by the obvious Chicago-style thuggery in the White House spin on the health care debate. The Obama administration is missing a golden opportunity to [...]