Today’s blacklisted American: Baltimore’s attorney attempts, and fails, to get FCC to silence and censor local Fox radio station
No first amendment allowed for conservatives,
according to Baltimore’s government attorney.
Blacklists are back and the Democrats got ’em! On May 5, 2021 the office of Baltimore’s state attorney, Democrat Marilyn Mosby, filed a formal complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) against a local Fox news station, demanding that the FCC censor and shut down the station because it has repeatedly published stories that were critical of Mosby and her policies.
The May 5 complaint, addressed to FCC acting chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, accuses WBFF (a.k.a. FOX45 News) — the Baltimore-based Fox-affiliate — of partaking in an “intentional crusade against … Mosby, which given today’s politically charged and divisive environment, is extremely dangerous.” It also details what Mosby’s communications director, Zy Richardson, believes to be a “disconcerting and dangerous pattern: beginning with a slanted, rigged, misleading, or inflammatory headline; followed by conspiracy theory; and supported with guest commentary from disgruntled ex-employees or political opponents that[sic] lend false credibility.”
“The truth of the matter,” Richardson says, “is I am deeply worried that if the WBFF’s coverage is not curtailed and ceased, then someone is going to get hurt. I implore and encourage you … to enlist the full investigative and enforcement powers granted to you by the Federal government to take action against the WBFF as soon as possible.” [emphasis mine]
The blatent oppressive nature of this demand — in utter violation of the first amendment of the Constitution and all that America has stood for during its first two hundred plus years — should be somewhat shocking, but sadly it has become so common from Democratic Party politicians and many of their supporters in the past five years that it hardly made the news when it happened in early May.
Think about it however. The office of an elected state’s attorney for Baltimore wishes to use the power of government to silence a specific news outlet because that attorney does not like the outlet’s news reporting. Only dictators like Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini would celebrate such actions. And Americans once in mass would have been horrified, and risen up to get Mosby removed from office immediately.
No more. Her office’s actions barely made the news, which is why I post this story again. It bears repeating, and must be remembered during the next election for Baltimore attorney. I have little hope that Baltimore voters will care, but they should at least be called to account for their support of dictators and thugs. In fact, many I am sure applauded her attempt to silence her critics. Many were likely the friends and the relatives of conservatives, people whom those friends and relatives thought were tolerant and fair-minded but were deep inside nothing more than fascist bullies, eagerly awaiting the day their political heroes had enough power to smash everyone who disagrees with them — including those very friends and even their relatives.
Fortunately, the FCC’s response, issued five days later, was blunt and to the point, essentially telling Mosby to pound sand. From the FCC’s statement [pdf]:
The State’s Attorney’s Office, led by Democrat Marilyn Mosby, has launched a chilling and direct attack on free speech and journalistic freedom. The complaint her office filed with the FCC asks the Commission to censor a newsroom simply because journalists are doing their constitutionally protected jobs and shining a light on the work of the State’s Attorney. Invoking the power of the state to silence journalists for unfavorable coverage strikes at the very heart of the First Amendment.
“It is particularly troubling that a public official would work to silence reporters that are investigating her work at a time when federal prosecutors have already opened a criminal investigation into her activities.
One of the reasons I write this column, titled as it is, is to illustrate how normalized the idea of oppression, blacklisting, censorship, and intolerance has become in America today. Most of this ugliness has come from the left and the Democratic Party, but they certainly do not have a copyright.
Once all Americans believed in freedom and liberty. Now we must come to grips with the fact that a large percentage, maybe a majority, of Americans are hostile to such ideas, and instead wish to use power and violence to silence their opponents. Mosby and her office are just one example in the hundreds I have been documenting daily.
To fight these thugs properly, freedom-loving Americans need to recognize how serious the fight is. This column is an attempt to make that fact clear, on a daily basis.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
No first amendment allowed for conservatives,
according to Baltimore’s government attorney.
Blacklists are back and the Democrats got ’em! On May 5, 2021 the office of Baltimore’s state attorney, Democrat Marilyn Mosby, filed a formal complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) against a local Fox news station, demanding that the FCC censor and shut down the station because it has repeatedly published stories that were critical of Mosby and her policies.
The May 5 complaint, addressed to FCC acting chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, accuses WBFF (a.k.a. FOX45 News) — the Baltimore-based Fox-affiliate — of partaking in an “intentional crusade against … Mosby, which given today’s politically charged and divisive environment, is extremely dangerous.” It also details what Mosby’s communications director, Zy Richardson, believes to be a “disconcerting and dangerous pattern: beginning with a slanted, rigged, misleading, or inflammatory headline; followed by conspiracy theory; and supported with guest commentary from disgruntled ex-employees or political opponents that[sic] lend false credibility.”
“The truth of the matter,” Richardson says, “is I am deeply worried that if the WBFF’s coverage is not curtailed and ceased, then someone is going to get hurt. I implore and encourage you … to enlist the full investigative and enforcement powers granted to you by the Federal government to take action against the WBFF as soon as possible.” [emphasis mine]
The blatent oppressive nature of this demand — in utter violation of the first amendment of the Constitution and all that America has stood for during its first two hundred plus years — should be somewhat shocking, but sadly it has become so common from Democratic Party politicians and many of their supporters in the past five years that it hardly made the news when it happened in early May.
Think about it however. The office of an elected state’s attorney for Baltimore wishes to use the power of government to silence a specific news outlet because that attorney does not like the outlet’s news reporting. Only dictators like Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini would celebrate such actions. And Americans once in mass would have been horrified, and risen up to get Mosby removed from office immediately.
No more. Her office’s actions barely made the news, which is why I post this story again. It bears repeating, and must be remembered during the next election for Baltimore attorney. I have little hope that Baltimore voters will care, but they should at least be called to account for their support of dictators and thugs. In fact, many I am sure applauded her attempt to silence her critics. Many were likely the friends and the relatives of conservatives, people whom those friends and relatives thought were tolerant and fair-minded but were deep inside nothing more than fascist bullies, eagerly awaiting the day their political heroes had enough power to smash everyone who disagrees with them — including those very friends and even their relatives.
Fortunately, the FCC’s response, issued five days later, was blunt and to the point, essentially telling Mosby to pound sand. From the FCC’s statement [pdf]:
The State’s Attorney’s Office, led by Democrat Marilyn Mosby, has launched a chilling and direct attack on free speech and journalistic freedom. The complaint her office filed with the FCC asks the Commission to censor a newsroom simply because journalists are doing their constitutionally protected jobs and shining a light on the work of the State’s Attorney. Invoking the power of the state to silence journalists for unfavorable coverage strikes at the very heart of the First Amendment.
“It is particularly troubling that a public official would work to silence reporters that are investigating her work at a time when federal prosecutors have already opened a criminal investigation into her activities.
One of the reasons I write this column, titled as it is, is to illustrate how normalized the idea of oppression, blacklisting, censorship, and intolerance has become in America today. Most of this ugliness has come from the left and the Democratic Party, but they certainly do not have a copyright.
Once all Americans believed in freedom and liberty. Now we must come to grips with the fact that a large percentage, maybe a majority, of Americans are hostile to such ideas, and instead wish to use power and violence to silence their opponents. Mosby and her office are just one example in the hundreds I have been documenting daily.
To fight these thugs properly, freedom-loving Americans need to recognize how serious the fight is. This column is an attempt to make that fact clear, on a daily basis.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Related, its all related:
TWO OBSERVATIONS
The first. The desperate, vacant look in his eyes. Very disturbing to me. A second rate used car salesman / politician way, way past his prime. No one can have any confidence in ANYTHING that emerges from his mouth.
A short clip from president, Joe Biden’s town hall the other night in Ohio: https://youtu.be/NM9LhH0lH_Y
And second, the nonsense coming out of his mouth. Nothing he said in this short clip makes any sense and is all a fumbled, jumbled and a disconnected mess. This is the leader of the free world? This is your president America.
The audience? About 100 people partially filling the venue.
Biden speaks to half-empty room at CNN town hall (nypost.com)
Joe Biden has never and will never be up to the job of being a leader and the president of the United States Of America.
Biden and Kammy are but Potemkin facade’s for the Democrat leadership that has through desperation and deceit installed he and she. And they have become driven through the real fear of losing their power by their party association and pandering with the extreme anti American Leftists among them as they flood the country with illegals in order that in time they vote Democrat. And that is just how simple this all is.
How cynical by necessity they are? VERY.
Heil Mosby !
“federal prosecutors have already opened a criminal investigation into her activities.”
Go, baby, go !
Mosley giving a Fiery speech at a Manchester blackshirt rally
https://youtu.be/sPB1jy4vmFA
1:23
“One of the reasons I write this column, titled as it is, is to illustrate how normalized the idea of oppression, blacklisting, censorship, and intolerance has become in America today. ”
I will suggest that “normalized” follows nominalism. Of which our society is rife.
Note that I did not reference our “culture”, which is certainly absent. Almost.
It seems to me that this might be an actionable offense. Did Mosby swear to uphold the constitution? I don’t know how widespread that is, especially at the state level.
Who would have standing to call for impeachment? Does one even need standing for that or can any legislator just do it?
Can we confirm if the FCC official who wrote that response still has a job? Given the current administration it would not surprise me in the slightest if that person were “canceled” and now looking for gainful employment. I pray I am wrong.
Once all Americans believed in freedom and liberty. Now we must come to grips with the fact that a large percentage, maybe a majority, of Americans are hostile to such ideas, and instead wish to use power and violence to silence their opponents.
Robert, I don’t see a majority overtly hostile to freedom and liberty. What I do see is a majority that is conditioned to subordinate those ideas to today’s flavor of “the common good”, as defined by the (myopic but) Pedestaled Elite that majority has been led to put their total trust in … and it is that subordination that opens the doors to the overtly-hostile minority to act.
After all, “who are you to stand in the way of the common good?”
Jester Naybor: Such people simply do not believe in freedom, and are as I said hostile to it.
Worse, they don’t know it.