Democrats Pushing Censorship

 Members of Congress asking cable TV companies to drop conservative news channels for doubleplusngood news:

Yet, to our knowledge, the cable, satellite, and over-the-top companies that disseminate these media outlets to American viewers have done nothing in response to the misinformation aired by these outlets. 14 AT&T currently carries Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN on U-verse, DirecTV, and AT&T TV. 15 As a company that serves 17 million Americans,16 AT&T plays a major role in 2 the spread of dangerous misinformation that enabled the insurrection of January 6th and hinders our public health response to the current pandemic.

It is for these reasons we ask that you provide us with responses to the following questions about AT&T’s policies toward content carried on U-verse, DirecTV, and AT&T TV by March 8, 2021:

1. What moral or ethical principles (including those related to journalistic integrity, violence, medical information, and public health) do you apply in deciding which channels to carry or when to take adverse actions against a channel?

2. Do you require, through contracts or otherwise, that the channels you carry abide by any content guidelines? If so, please provide a copy of the guidelines.

3. How many of your subscribers tuned in to Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN on U-verse, DirecTV, and AT&T TV for each of the four weeks preceding the November 3, 2020 elections and the January 6, 2021 attacks on the Capitol? Please specify the number of subscribers that tuned in to each channel.

4. What steps did you take prior to, on, and following the November 3, 2020 elections and the January 6, 2021 attacks to monitor, respond to, and reduce the spread of disinformation, including encouragement or incitement of violence by channels your company disseminates to millions of Americans? Please describe each step that you took and when it was taken.

This is not strictly a threat to censor, but anyone that does not recognize this as an attempt to suppress differing opinions is not strong on reading skills.

Preparing Us for Censorship

1/13/21 New York Post:

WASHINGTON — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez revealed that Congress is looking into creating an investigative commission to “rein in” the media in the wake of the US Capitol siege.

During a lengthy Instagram Live on Tuesday evening where she revealed that she feared for her life during the siege, the “Squad” member accused the mainstream media of “spewing disinformation” ahead of the deadly riot in which five people died.

“There’s absolutely a commission that’s being discussed but it seems to be more investigating in style rather than truth and reconciliation,” she said.

“I do think that several members of Congress in some of my discussions have brought up media literacy because that is part of what happened here,” Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) went on.

“We’re going to have to figure out how we rein in our media environment so you can’t just spew disinformation and misinformation,” she said.

“It’s one thing to have differentiating opinions, but it’s another thing entirely to just say things that are false, so that’s something that we’re looking into.”

Why, We Have a First Amendment

As much as the presstitutes have degraded the news business, this really shows the direction the left is going.  3/14/19 NBC News:

A former Fox News employee plans to tell Congress about allegations that the outlet tried to stop her from reporting on the Stormy Daniels controversy during the 2016 election, citing an exception to a nondisclosure agreement she signed.

On Thursday, House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings formally requested that the reporter, Diana Falzone, talk with committee investigators and provide documents related to her attempts to report on Daniels’ allegations that Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former longtime lawyer, paid her hush money after an alleged affair with Trump in 2006.

Falzone’s lawyer, Nancy Erika Smith, told MSNBC on Thursday night that Falzone will now comply under an exception to her NDA with Fox News.

“The law requires that you be allowed to participate in any government investigation — and no NDA can stop that,” Smith said on "The Beat with Ari Melber."

If Republicans had subpoenaed NBC reporters about their coverage of Russiagate, the ACLU would be rightly concerned that this was an attempt to intimidate the news media.