No, Not the Muzzle

I think that there are really good local conservative bloggers. There are those who are not so good. And then, there are those whose content borders on the hysterical. One of these is Mary at Freedom Eden.

Her latest "masterpiece" is a look at Bill Cunningham, a Cinncinati-based radio show host, who has been running afoul of Media Matters, a self-professed media watchdog. Ms Freedom Eden claims that Media Matters is targeting Cunningham because of his continued use of the Barack Obama's middle name. Which, she writes, is ridiculous because Obama will need to use it when he is sworn in as President. And, she pants, this is just the beginning. She believes that Cunningham is the first of a “long list of conservative talkers to be deemed a 'purveyor of hate speech' by the Left. The effort is underway to silence conservative talk radio, to squelch free speech, to muzzle dissent.”

Look out hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet. Those darned leftists.

But really, dissent? She calls what Cunningham spews dissent? Mary must have missed the following examples of sewerage dished up from the septic tank that is Cunningham's mind.

From the October 28 broadcast of Clear Channel's The Big Show with Bill Cunningham:

“Imagine being 10 years old, being raised -- imagine being 10 years old in Jakarta, Indonesia, being raised as a Muslim, and your mother, Ann Dunham, hates you so much that she sends you to Honolulu to live with her mom and dad, so she can stay in Jakarta, Indonesia, and being raised -- being married to Barry Soetoro. And imagine at the age of 1 or 2 seeing your father for the last time. See, his father was a typical black father who, right after the birth, left the baby. That's what black fathers do. They simply leave.”

Wow. Barack's mother hated him and black fathers don't stick around after birth. I don't know about you, but that seems a bit of a sretch. Oh, and where's the dissent?

Or, how about this turd from the October 30 broadcast of The Big Show with Bill Cunningham:

“... because Obama wants to gas the Jews, like the PLO wants to gas the Jews, like the Nazis gassed the Jews.”

Cunningham was having a conversation with a fictional character, Randy Furman, when he uttered that classic piece of – what did Mary call it -- oh yeah, dissent. And on his November 3 broadcast of Clear Channel's The Big Show with Bill Cunningham:

"He goes out to his left-wing buddies in San Francisco and smears God, smears guns, smears everything great about this country. Then he comes to these rallies like bromides, like Adolf Hitler in 1933, and the faithful are shouting, 'Yes we can, yes we can.'”

What was that thing called Godwin's Law.

Anyway, my definition of what contitutes dissent differs markedly from Mary's, because I'm fairly certain my definition actually includes some differences of opinion. All I read of Cunningham was ginned up hate. Yes, hate. That's my opinion, my dissent.

But you know, what even more remarkable is nowhere in the pieces written at Media Matters covering this horse manure does anyone suggest that Cunningham should be muzzled. Why not? Well, here is how Media Matters itself describes its mission.

Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. Media.

Monitoring, analying and correcting conservative misinformation. Hmmm. I don't see any references to muzzling.

Launched in May 2004, Media Matters for America put in place, for the first time, the means to systematically monitor a cross section of print, broadcast, cable, radio, and Internet media outlets for conservative misinformation — news or commentary that is not accurate, reliable, or credible and that forwards the conservative agenda — every day, in real time.

Using the website http://www.mediamatters.org/ as the principal vehicle for disseminating research and information, Media Matters posts rapid-response items as well as longer research and analytic reports documenting conservative misinformation throughout the media. Additionally, Media Matters works daily to notify activists, journalists, pundits, and the general public about instances of misinformation, providing them with the resources to rebut false claims and to take direct action against offending media institutions.
Meida Matters posts rapid-response items documenting conservative misinformation. And, provides resources to rebut false claims and take direct action against offending institutions.

Oh, I see, it's the take direct action part that Mary doesn't like. But, how does that equate to muzzling? Well frankly, it doesn't.

You see, the issue now is that the conservative media no longer can get away with saying the frothingly inaccurate crap they've gotten away with and they don't like it. Having been able to frame discussions with inaccuracy, downright lies and race-baiting for years, the conservative media and their apologists see anyone highlighting their hate speech as attempts at muzzling. In the same way they call any attempt to reenact the Fairness Doctrine (btw: I'm against) as censorship when in fact no speech is being censored, the intent is merely to bring balance. But that's another post.

Some conservatives simply don't feel good about themselves unless they can spew hate recklessly or alternately play the victim game, which Mary buys into well.