So-called "Free Press" wants to silence talk radio and Fox News

Some idiot named Josh Silver over at the ill-named FreePress is complaining about Limbaugh, Hannity and Fox News. The irony is not just that the guy works for an organization called "Free Press" but that he's the executive director and also advocates muzzling opinions that he doesn't like.

I'll submit into evidence this particularly noxious secretion:

Obama-the-candidate commented several times that voters' false views of him -- that he's a Muslim, a socialist and unpatriotic -- were fed and spread by Fox News and their cohorts like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham in the far-right media. Obama understands that they are the special sauce in Karl Rove's toxic recipe to discredit progressive policies and politicians, and divide Americans with wedge issues.

...The Washington Post ombudsman and others claim that the media was too kind to Obama and hard on John McCain. This superficial analysis is both wrong and misleading. Wrong because you had a candidate that was forcefully embracing the policies of George W. Bush while the nation spiraled into one of its darkest moments in its history. The idea that the press should not exert sharp criticism of such a candidate reflects the kind of tepid pandering that has become the hallmark of mainstream corporate media.

Get it? The press was right to "exert sharp criticism" of McSame, but Limbaugh and his ilk are tools of Rove who have no right to speak out because they "divide Americans"! Glad we're clear on that!

Take a walk through rural Ohio as I did this Election Day, and working-class voters are watching Fox, reading empty newspapers running on a bare-bones staff, and listening to radio's right-wing hate-fest... Dramatically increasing funding for public media: for PBS and NPR, as well as community radio and television, and other noncommercial outlets. This includes policies that better protect public media from undue political pressures.

Translated: these Ohio crackers are too stupid to pick the right channels... so let's instead enforce "local programming" content rules so that "community organizers" and liberal, government-funded public radio are the only choices.

Tell you what, Joshie: I'll back your proposal when there are an equal number of conservative voices on NPR morning, noon and night.

As an aside, I do like Tim Karr (also of FreePress) and support the net neutrality aims of SaveTheInternet.com. But I can't tolerate a guy like Silver who claims to espouse freedom of expression on the one hand while he aims to shut down a tiny trickle of conservative opinion on the other.

Go pound sand, Silver. Or should I just call you Josh Hitler, what with your totalitarian goals and all?