The refusal by ABC and NBC to run a national ad critical of President Obama's health care reform plan is raising questions from the group behind the spot -- particularly in light of ABC's health care special aired in prime time last June hosted at the White House
This is how fascism works. Obama threatens GE, Disney if they don't get aboard the Obama train they will be targeted as demons. They are big business and therefore vulnerable to attack. The networks can read the tea leaves and tone down or eliminate any criticism of the Democrats, Obama, healthcare reform, stimulus plan. Fascism is when government controls business but does not own it. Are we there yet? Pretty darned close if you ask me.
[Except in this case I think the normal big media leftist biases are to blame. This doesn't require any govt coercion. The latest I've seen about it has ABC saying it is their corporate policy not to air 'controversial' politically based ads (how that explains their airing of the prime time Obama special without rebuttal only their fevered liberal brains can explain). NBC officials say they haven't refused to air it, but have asked for some changes, so only partial censorship. - JAH]
[Except in this case I think the normal big media leftist biases are to blame. This doesn't require any govt coercion. The latest I've seen about it has ABC saying it is their corporate policy not to air 'controversial' politically based ads (how that explains their airing of the prime time Obama special without rebuttal only their fevered liberal brains can explain). NBC officials say they haven't refused to air it, but have asked for some changes, so only partial censorship. - JAH]
I doubt if the threats are explicit...or if they are, they're made by people far down the totem pole, so they can be plausibly denied...but the whole behavior of this administration has demonstrated that they will retaliate for anything they think is a hostile act, such as the airing of unapproved thoughts.
ReplyDeleteGE is particularly vulnerable to government pressure because of their businesses that are closely tied to government policy...energy, healthcare, finance...also, Jeff Immelt is probably feeling extreme personal career pressure at this moment. It's less obvious why Disney should be so vulnerable.