BCT Editorial – 11/12/08

This page was last updated on November 15, 2008.

Get real; Editorial; Beaver County Times; November 12, 2008.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“The election of Barack Obama has broken what little grasp some right-wingers had on reality.”

[RWC] By lefty definition, no “right-wingers” ever have any “grasp … on reality.”

“Two examples of this popped up in the run-up to and aftermath of the election.

“In the first case, gun dealers report there has been an increase in the sales of handguns, rifles and ammunition by buyers who fear that an Obama White House will curtail their right to bear arms.”

[RWC] So all those “buyers who fear that an Obama White House will curtail their right to bear arms” are “right-wingers?”

“The second case involves right-wing talk radio hosts claiming that a Democratic-controlled Congress will re-impose the Fairness Doctrine to restrict their presence on the radio.”

[RWC] Once again the Times omitted a crucial fact. It doesn’t take Congress to “re-impose the Fairness Doctrine.” The misnamed policy was an FCC-imposed regulation and can be reinstated by the FCC without approval from Congress. Mr. Obama will get his first opportunity to appoint an FCC commissioner in June 2009 and this will give Democrats a 3-2 majority. The maximum number of members from the same party is three.

Here’s something else the editorial omitted. Democrat leaders have been talking about reinstating the FD for quite a while, and on Election Day Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) compared regulating conservative talk radio to regulating pornography.

“Like gun control, that’s not going to happen. Here’s just a partial to-do list for Obama and Congress: an economic meltdown, an unstable stock market, a dreadful businesses climate, home foreclosures, rising unemployment, record federal deficits, rampant entitlement spending, growing status as a debtor nation, a sickly health-care system, climate crisis, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and terrorism.”

[RWC] Quick, how many items on this list were caused by government interference in the first place and which don’t even exist? Wait, isn’t mentioning “terrorism” fear mongering?

“And the Democrats’ priorities are guns and talk radio? Get real.”

[RWC] This sounds like when an editorial claimed banning smoking on private property wasn’t getting us on a slippery slope. Please read my critique of “Don’t lighten up” to see what I mean.