Obama: "Free speech for me, but not for thee."
I didn’t see this earlier in the day because the Arkansas News Bureau website was inexplicably jacked up, but columnist David Sanders has a tough column today looking at the Barack Obama campaign’s rather alarming practice of seeking to squelch viewpoints critical of Obama.
Case in point, per Sanders: Reports last week that Obama was launching a “truth squad” in Missouri, made up of prosecutors and law enforcement personnel, to “target anyone who lies or runs a misleading television ad during the presidential campaign.” (Here’s the original TV report.)
There’s been some controversy over what that means exactly—are they looking to turn the powers of the state against political ads they don’t like?—but the state’s Republican Gov. Matt Blunt issued a blistering statement criticizing the “Obama truth squad” effort as an abusive assault on free speech.
Sanders points to other examples in a column that’s well worth reading in its entirety (though I might have gone with a headline that was a bit less, um, overheated).
And in honor of Sanders and the Citizens Journal blog, which has also been treading in these waters, I bring you….ONE OF THE POLITICAL ADS THAT BARACK OBAMA DOES NOT WANT YOU TO SEE!!!!!!!! It’s from the National Rifle Association, which has released several ads hitting Obama on gun rights issues. Just doing my part for free speech, y’know:
Jacob Sullum and Dave Kopel at the indispensable Reason Magazine have a smart and even-handed take on the NRA ads, by the way.
Update: Excellent round-up on this issue from Instapundit.
Update: Arkansas Project contributor Freeman Hunt has also tackled this issue over at her baseship blog.
Comments