Left’s global drive for control
by Ralph Peters
New York Post
October 31, 2009
The Obama administration’s un-American attempt to vilify Fox News only increased the network’s popularity. But this White House debacle can’t be judged in isolation: There’s a global leftwing assault on the freedom of information.
Intense leftist sentiment in most of the international media isn’t enough. Extremists seek total control.
The one thing leftists just can’t bear is criticism. (Mass murder’s fine, but don’t stray from the party line.) As early as the French Revolution, the left grasped that a free press is inherently subversive to its doctrines.
The Obama administration’s aborted Fox hunt simply aligned our government with the hounds of the global left. Our Constitution and common sense frustrated the White House apparatchiks — but other leftist and radical regimes are crushing press freedoms, murdering dissenting journalists and turning the media into a state weapon.
In country after country where Obama’s been tapping re-set buttons, the media are under assault:
* In Russia, journalists and human-rights bloggers continue to be murdered in cold blood by the agents of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Dozens of such assassinations have failed to lead to a single conviction — in a police state where such killings are hardly spontaneous.
The parameters of what’s permissible in the Russian media grow ever narrower. Propaganda’s back in full force, and the body count rises. Obama looks away.
* In Venezuela, strongman Hugo Chavez has been gutting a once-vibrant media since 2002. Regime thugs invade newsrooms, rough up journalists and wreck machinery. As for those who resist, well, accidents happen. Since August, Chavez has revoked the licenses of 34 more radio and TV stations. Obama looks away.
* In Argentina, the Kirchner mini-dynasty, faced with the disastrous effects of its pseudo-populist looting, assaults the media through bogus tax investigations (a Putin technique), the manipulation of paper supplies and monopoly charges. The key Clarin media group — which supported the Kirchners before they wrecked the economy — is now under attack.
Enraged by the exposure of their incompetence, the Kirchners are determined to dominate the press. Obama looks away.
* In Iran, journalists and bloggers fighting for democracy have been murdered, raped, tortured and imprisoned in the wake of last June’s phony elections. Obama looks away.
This article continues at New York Post.
