Muzzling Murdoch
by Ryan Sager
Fri, 3 Aug 2007 at 11:08 AM
updated Fri, 3 Aug 2007 at 11:10 AM
I've got a column this morning on the Democrats' fussing over the Rupert Murdoch / Wall Street Journal deal:
John Edwards has a problem with Rupert Murdoch, so he wants Mr. Murdoch to have a problem with the Federal Communications Commission as he completes his deal to acquire Dow Jones.
To that end, the former North Carolina senator is agitating for his fellow Democrats to "take the necessary steps to stop the merger." One Democratic member of the FCC, Michael Copps, who addressed the progressive YearlyKos convention in Chicago yesterday, even looks ready to help create a problem, telling Mr. Murdoch in an overly excited written statement issued Wednesday, "Not so fast!" and calling for the FCC to "immediately conduct a careful factual and legal analysis of the transaction."
There would seem to be no legitimate means by which the feds could scotch the News Corp.- Dow Jones deal under current law (full disclosure: This columnist's wife works for the Wall Street Journal). But Mr. Edwards's puffing and posturing is significant for another reason: It cuts to the core of the Democratic Party's disdain for free and unbridled public discourse and its desire to use the power of the state to "level the playing field" by silencing conservatives.
Read the rest here.
Related Topics: Dem Primary
Latest Politics Homepage
|
Print
Send
RSS
