Sunday, October 17, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

THOMAS MITCHELL: The modern day book burners

" `Stop it, stop it, stop it,' I kept on creeching out. `Turn it off, you grahzny bastards, for I can stand no more.' It was the next day, brothers, and I had truly done my best morning and afternoon to play it their way and sit like a horrorshow smiling co-operative malchick in the chair of torture while they flashed nasty bits of ultra-violence on the screen, my glazzies clipped open to viddy all, my plott and rookers and nogas fixed to the chair so I could not get away."

-- "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess

The conniptions erupted when the owner of Sinclair Broadcast Group announced he had decided to pre-empt prime time programming on his 62 television stations before the election to broadcast a documentary about presidential candidate John Kerry's anti-Vietnam War activities and their effects on American prisoners of war more than 30 years ago.

The Democratic National Committee complained to the Federal Election Commission, arguing that airing the film, ''Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal,'' would constitute an in-kind contribution to the campaign of President Bush and therefore violate provisions of the McCain-Feingold Act. If that weren't ridiculous enough, 18 Democratic senators -- our own champion of the First Amendment, Harry Reid, among them -- whined to the Federal Communications Commission that airing of the documentary would somehow do violence to the fair use of "public" airwaves.

"Sinclair's owners aren't interested in news, they're interested in pro-Bush propaganda," DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe protested.

Even though the Sinclair officials have invited Kerry to appear and discuss the film, Sen. Reid and his fellow government censors dismissed that out of hand as a ruse and mewled: "Equal time rules exist for a purpose -- to prevent the airing of one-sided political content without equal response time given to the opposing view or candidate. In this case, it is impossible to imagine how the equal time rules would be satisfied if this plan is allowed to go forward."

That is called prior restraint, senator, and has generally been much frowned upon by the courts. How does anyone know whether the broadcast will be unfair or one-sided until after it has taken place? Never mind that many of the 24 percent of the nation's households that can even access one of Sinclair's stations probably receive it via cable or satellite and not over the people's public airwaves.

Nonetheless, FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps, a Democrat who holds the power of licensure over broadcasters, proclaimed, "This is an abuse of the public trust. And it is proof positive of media consolidation run amok when one owner can use the public airwaves to blanket the country with its political ideology -- whether liberal or conservative. Some will undoubtedly question if this is appropriate stewardship of the public airwaves."

This is nothing more than a 21st-century version of book burning.

(By the way, the documentary is scheduled to air locally on KFBT-TV, Channel 33, at 8 p.m. Wednesday and on KVWB-TV, Channel 21, at 9 p.m. Thursday.)

I don't recall, despite all the protestations that it was full of bald-faced lies and was nothing but anti-Bush propaganda, anyone actually going so far as trying to block the release of Michael Moore's mockumentary "Fahrenheit 9/11."

But to listen to the apoplectic Democrats, you'd think every voter in America, like Burgess' Alex, was going to be doped up, strapped down, with eyelids clipped open and forced to watch "Stolen Honor" until they are so brainwashed that the very sight of John Kerry would induce physical revulsion. This does considerable damage to the First Amendment guarantees of free speech and press, while ignoring the concomitant concept that the informed voter is perfectly capable of sifting through the chaff of lies and distortions to find a grain of truth.

Repeal McCain-Feingold. While we're at it, let's disband the anachronistic FCC and auction off the airwaves to the highest bidders.

Thomas Mitchell, editor of the Review-Journal, writes on the role of free speech and free press. He may be reached at 383-0261 or via e-mail at tmitchell@reviewjournal.com.