Kerry wants to ban NRA tv channel

[The diplomat]

Kerry Seeks Block of NRA Channel

Tuesday, December 09, 2003

WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry (search) doesn't want to tune in to a National Rifle Association (search) channel anytime soon.

The Massachusetts senator sent Federal Election Commission (search) Chairwoman Ellen Weintraub a letter Tuesday asking the commission to block any attempt by the NRA to get a media exemption to campaign finance rules.

The gun-rights lobby is considering acquiring a television or radio outlet and seeking the same exemption from campaign finance rules that news organizations have. If the group won a media exemption, it would be free to say whatever it wanted about candidates at any time and spend unlimited amounts doing so.

"We urge you to prevent the NRA from hijacking America's airwaves with the gun lobby's money," Kerry's letter said. "If the NRA has something to say, it can play by the rules, just like the millions of people in America who do every day."

The NRA, financed in part with corporate money, is banned by the campaign finance law from running ads identifying federal candidates close to elections in states where they are on the ballot. It contends the rules violate free-speech rights (search), and is among several groups asking the Supreme Court to strike them down.
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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,105281,00.html

I know a lot of you probably hate the NRA, but don't they have the right to start a tv channel and say whatever they want. What about free speech?

This kind of attempt to regulate free speech just because you don't like it, is really disturbing!

Kerry

[MarkG]

This kind of attempt to regulate free speech just because you don't like it

everything that is banned, is banned because the majority of people dont like it

example: most people dont like murders

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by MarkG
example: most people dont like murders

Except in Greece.

[The diplomat]

Originally posted by MarkG

This kind of attempt to regulate free speech just because you don't like it

everything that is banned, is banned because the majority of people dont like it

example: most people dont like murders

We are talking about free speech. As far as I know, murder is not free speech.

[Whoha]

Dean already beat Kerry to making one of these claims, he won't catchup any time soon.

[MarkG]

this guy tells it better than i could ever imagine

This just in: NRA channel brings us the news
By Betty Cuniberti
Published: Wednesday, Dec. 10 2003

I think everybody agrees that the biggest problem in America today is not enough television stations (with the possible exception of people who believe the problem is not enough guns). Because the station shortage is a threat to our general well being and safety, what took the National Rifle Association so long to look after us?

Last weekend, the NRA said it was looking into buying a television or radio station and declaring itself a news organization - to circumvent the new limits on campaign spending and advertising. If the "I love guns" people become a news organization, they could get around the new ban on running ads just before elections that mention federal candidates on states' ballots. They could fund the "news organization" with corporate gun-maker money.

Forget all that. They could run a fun father-son sitcom about John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo.

"We're looking at bringing a court case that we're as legitimate a media outlet as Disney or Viacom or Time-Warner," the NRA's executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, told The Associated Press. "Why should they have an exclusive right to relay information to the public, and why shouldn't the NRA be considered as legitimate a news source as they are?"

Let's see. "Legitimate news source." "Gun lobby." You're right. I don't see any difference.

Stay tuned for the totally unbiased nightly news show, "Wayne's World." Just imagine: "Crime wave brought on by gun control causes Australia to sink to the bottom of the ocean. Meanwhile, 5 million Americans saved their own lives today by waving handguns at would-be attackers in churches, day-care centers and other crime-ridden areas. Tomorrow: Five million more Americans successfully save their own lives with guns. Friday: Exclusive interview with 10 million would-be attackers, who tell us, 'I give up!'"

A good many folks think mainstream news outlets are one, big, liberal lobby. Many of the people yearning for totally unbiased news coverage say they can find it only with Rush Limbaugh.

Rush had better watch his back. Sundays, on NRA's "Meet the Second Amendment," prominent journalists from across the political spectrum will discuss why the word "militia" means every adult with a pulse and $100. They will do this over and over until it almost starts to make sense. We'll even tune in during deer-hunting season, when "Meet the Second Amendment" will suspend normal programming and air "Bambi," furthering the common confusion between the NRA and Disney.

Campaign finance laws have been nothing if not flexible. Post-Watergate reforms led to the soft money nightmare that the McCain-Feingold law was designed to beat back. The big guys always find their way around campaign finance limits, but usually not this quickly. Or this creatively.

The NRA, a news organization? What next? Cloned aliens from outer space sent by God?

Because the second biggest problem in America is not enough guns on TV, an NRA channel would be the answer to many of our prayers. I, for one, am so tired of seeing people on TV stabbed, strangled, poisoned, suffocated with pillows and bashed on the noggin with a Ming vase. I'm a busy woman. I don't have all day to wait for people to die. Give me a quick Glock through-and-through and get on with the story.

If the NRA is able to go ahead with its plan, we will have "news organizations" we never dreamed of. The Tobacco News Network. The Pharmaceutical News Network. Anheuser-Busch could be an interesting news organization. For all we know, there may be a severe Bud Light shortage in Iraq.

The time for the AARP Golden Girls News Network has come. (Ahem.) With any luck, we'll never have complete public financing of campaigns; elections will continue to be bought and sold, and news will never again be reported by news people. I just worry about how all these news organizations are going to find time to lobby.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/lifestyle/Columnists.nsf/Betty+Cuniberti/EF44C71B973CB16F86256DF7003DD3FE?OpenDocument&Headline=This+just+in%3A+NRA+channel+brings+us+the+news

[Jaakko]

Um, isn't this is about the NRA wanting an exemption on arguably dubious grounds, rather than Kerry trying to "ban" them?

[MarkG]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
Except in Greece.

there are not enough zeroes in the universe to rate this post

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by MarkG
this guy tells it better than i could ever imagine

You do realize that the main cause of that is the ludicrous rules regarding what groups can and can not say in an election, don't you?

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Jaakko
Um, isn't this is about the NRA wanting an exemption on arguably dubious grounds, rather than Kerry trying to "ban" them?

he is just trying to save the nation from the "if you want to keep your gun, vote this man" ads

[Bereta_Eder]

Originally posted by MarkG
there are not enough zeroes in the universe to rate this post

Agreed. But I never expected anything better from moneypenny (dino)

[MarkG]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
You do realize that the main cause of that is the ludicrous rules regarding what groups can and can not say in an election, don't you?

any ban on those NRA lunatics is a good ban

[Jaakko]

I'm relieved to see that Apolytoners are still doing their old schticks, despite my lengthy absence.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by MarkG
there are not enough zeroes in the universe to rate this post

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?postid=2542045#post2542045

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by MarkG
any ban on those NRA lunatics is a good ban

Nice to see that you care about free speech.