Newt’s Grasp Of The First Amendment

Newt Gingrich is a former history professor. After finding out that he co-sponsored the reintroduction of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, I think someone needs to make the point that you have to to Newt Gingrich when he speaks.

This video, in my view, offers a liberal view of the aftermath of abolishing the Fairness Doctrine, but it does point out that Newt sponsored the reintroduction of the Fairness Doctrine. The monotonous narrator doesn’t point out that if not for the nixing of the Fairness Doctrine, freedom in broadcasting could not be achieved. The major media, during the reign of the Fairness Doctrine, could and did spin the news toward liberalism. Now, conservative alternatives can be found, and in fact, through consumer reaction, can be shown to be the prelevant view. You can think anything you want, and pick your favorites. Isn’t America grand?

But Newt tells Sean Hannity in this interview, that he is for certain forms of censorship.

NEWT GINGRICH (R), FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I think a conservative ought to introduce a bill that calls for equal time in Hollywood, equal time on college campuses, equal time in the “New York Times�? editorial page, equal time at CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, and “Time�? and “Newsweek,�? and then we could have a conversation. But, as you point out, this is an absurdity. You’ve got — Congressman Mike Pence has the right bill. He’s introduced a bill to block any effort to impose government censorship on talk radio.

When you start paying attention to what Newt says, his “smartest guy in the room�? veneer begins to fade.

This goes to his penchant for wanting a conservative face on things that are not conservative. He did it with healthcare, environmentalism, and here in this interview.

He is talking to a major talk radio figure, and says, basically, that conservatives should gather to force so-called “fairness�? on all entities of the national press, except of course talk radio.

No Newt, “fairness�? or “equality�? cannot be legislated.

GINGRICH: No, look, Sean, this is affirmative action for liberalism. They tried talk radio; they couldn’t succeed. Nobody wanted to listen to them. They were boring. They were dumb. When they were in a competitive environment, they got crushed.

And so what they want us to do now is give liberals, whether they earn it or not, access to the airwaves, even if nobody wants to listen to them. And their goal, frankly, is to kill your radio show, Bill Bennett’s, Rush Limbaugh’s, Michael Reagan, all the various hundreds of local shows around the country, our good friend Neal Boortz.

We conservatives agree that liberals are, “dumb…boring…nobody wants to listen to them.�? But I’ll be damned if I’m going to rally around the idea that suppressing political speech is a conservative idea. Hannity articulated that during the interview, but went right past Gingrich.

I’m starting to believe Gingrich is the one who says nutty stuff, not Bachmann.