June 2010
They've gone after Glenn Beck.
Rush Limbaugh is in their crosshairs.
They want Sean Hannity off the air.
Salem Communications, Townhall's parent company, has a bull's-eye on it.
They've attempted to marginalize Fox News.
The Obama administration hates those in the media who would dare to question their agenda -- especially talk radio.
The Left has declared war on conservative talk radio because they know the influence it has in thwarting the progressive agenda. So it comes as no surprise that the liberal media have labeled it everything from "hate speech" to "sedition."
But talk radio is exactly the type of First Amendment speech the Founding Fathers had in mind when they wrote the Bill of Rights. In fact, talk radio more closely resembles the Founders' vision of the guarantee for a free press than the mainstream media: Like the colonial press, talk radio seeks to stir the public to action, while the MSM is perceived as talking down to its readers, viewers and listeners.
It is power of and the attack on conservative media, specifically talk radio, that drove us to publish June's powerful cover story, "Trashing Talk," by Townhall contributing editor Fred Lucas. 
The only thing endangered by talk radio is public apathy. That most certainly is not seditious.
As Michael Harrison, editor of Talkers magazine, told Lucas: "To say any kind of criticism of the government is sedition is not understanding what the First Amendment is all about. It fundamentally misses the depth of the First Amendment."
Here's a sampling of Lucas' important story, "Trashing Talk":
Conservative talk radio must be protected from the Obama agenda, and this exclusive Townhall cover story will help Americans understand the importance of talk radio and the threat the government poses to it.
"I did a little bit of research just before the show on this little napkin here," Klein told host Chris Matthews and fellow panelists. "I looked up the definition of 'sedition,' which is conduct and language inciting rebellion against the authority of the state. And a lot of these statements, especially the ones coming from people like Glenn Beck and, to a certain extent, Sarah Palin, rub right next—right up close to being seditious."
Fellow panelist John Heilemann of New York Magazine was quick to concur.
"You know, Joe is right, and I will name another person here, his name is Rush Limbaugh, you know, who uses this phrase, talks about the Obama administration as a 'regime,'" Heilemann said. "That phrase which has connotations of tyranny."
A somber-faced Matthews—who used to refer to the George W. Bush "regime"—nodded compliantly expressing his grave concern. Matthews himself said months earlier, "The activists on radio are not afraid, because they’re not afraid of anything. But at some point, if we have violence in this country against our president of any form or attempt, people are gonna pay for it, the people who have encouraged the craziness."
Craziness can apparently be defined as criticizing the public policies of elected officials.
"The typical liberal rhetoric is that free speech is only free speech when you agree with them," said conservative talk-show host Mike Gallagher in an interview for this story. "I remember when Hillary [Clinton] shrieked, saying it is healthy to dissent when Bush was president."
The intense attacks are because talk radio's influence has skyrocketed with the burgeoning tea party movement and a potentially watershed mid-term election coming in November, Gallagher noted.
"Talk radio is quintessential. It is a grassroots medium. The tea party movement’s mindset is grassroots. So there is perfect synergy between talk radio and the tea parties," Gallagher said. "I’ve been doing this since 1978. I’ve seen a lot of peaks and valleys. Now talk radio has the opportunity to make a true, real difference in the direction of the country. Most of us are taking that very serious. I know I am."
The use of absurd liberal demagoguery to accuse conservative talk radio of demagoguery is not new. Recall President Bill Clinton said "loud and angry voices" on talk radio who were "promoters of paranoia" were responsible for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which was, at the time, the worst terrorist attack ever on American soil.
But the smearing of conservative talkers seems to have reached another high point in today's efforts by Democrats and some in the media to defend President Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress and to discredit the tea party movement.
"The number of attacks on conservative talk radio has increased with the tea parties because they are accused of drumming up civil unrest," Michael Harrison, editor of the trade journal Talkers magazine, said in an interview for this report. "To blame conservative talk radio for instigating violence is unfair and unhealthy. Demonstrations are the American way. That is politically motivated criticism. To question your government is what this country was built on."
Order Townhall Magazine today to ensure you don't miss this powerful report on the Obama-orchestrated attack on conservative radio. 
In "The Myth of the Conservative Democrat" in the June issue of Townhall magazine, Washington Examiner online opinion editor and New York Times best-selling author David Freddoso writes that, considering the voting records of the so-called "Blue Dogs," it's fair to assume that the breed is extinct.
Tea partiers should ask themselves, "Will my 'conservative' Democrat be the next Ben Nelson or Bart Stupak?"
There has been a history of betrayal from the Blue Dogs -- from social/life issues "Not only are Democratic leaders hostile to the pro-life agenda, but the Democratic Party is also strewn with former pro-lifers who once gave voters every assurance of their concern for the unborn, only to place a knife i the movement's back, usually for sake of advancement within the party."
to to fiscal/budgetary issues "Blue Dogs are often misleadingly referred to as fiscal conservatives. But when conservatives fret over deficits, they are usually concerned about government overspending. For Blue Dogs, the problem is that there isn't enough revenue. For most of them, higher taxes are a perfectly acceptable solution to high deficits."
-- and Blue Dogs always cower to their leadership. "Remember, every single conservative Democrat in the House voted for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker in January 2009. Considering the incredible powers that Democratic leaders apparently have over their flock and the aggressively liberal tone Pelosi has set in the last 17 legislative months, that might have been their most important vote of all."
With the possibility of losing its grip on political power after the fall elections, the Obama administration is not just pushing its frightening domestic agenda as hard as it can, it is also making as much ground as possible on the national security threat.
And Townhall contributor Peter Brookes writes that nowhere is that more evident than on nuclear policy. Just last April, the Obama administration released its new nuclear strategy; inked a new strategic treaty with the Russians; and hosted a global atomic affair with nearly 50 world leaders descending upon Washington, D.C.
It has been a veritable “no-nukes-palooza” around the White House recently, but it should come as no surprise. President Obama is no Dr. Strangelove—in fact, quite the opposite, hoping against hope to eliminate nuclear weapons altogether.
Indeed, the New York Times reported last year that, as a student, Obama penned an article for his campus magazine at Columbia University in the early 1980s about his vision of a nuclear-free world.
A quarter of a century later, that vision has not changed. Unfortunately, the strategic direction Obama is sending us in—with a policy paper, an international agreement and a meeting—is seriously misguided and threatens our national security.
In "Losing Land to Land Trusts," we expose one of the biggest threats to property rights that is going under the radar. Conservationists and various levels of government are using seemingly tame easements to gobble up America.
Also in the June issue:
Subscribe today to make sure you get the powerful June issue.
*Ann Coulter explains the Obama national security policy
*Mary Katharine Ham warns that the Food & Drug Administration is a threat to personal liberty
*Ed Morrissey and Allahpundit debate the impact of the national immigration fight on the GOP's electoral chances
*Party-establishment candidates are in trouble
*Government jobs: The latest 'get-rich-quick' scheme
*Mark Levin and J.D. Hayworth gossip about John McCain
*Americans to Washington: Cut taxes!
*S.E. Cupp compiles a summer reading list for President Obama
And much more.
Townhall Magazine has a limited number of the new Newt Gingrich Book, To Save America: Stopping Obama's Secular-Socialist Machine left. Subscribe quickly and get To Save America: Stopping Obama's Secular-Socialist Machine free along with the Talk Radio Under Fire issue. 
Townhall Magazine is the monthly news and opinion journal from the same team of right-thinking reporters, opinions makers, insiders and political leaders conservatives have trusted for 15 years. It's the place to find interviews with and profiles and writings of some of your favorite conservatives, including Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Thomas Sowell, Andrew Breitbart, Newt Gingrich, Walter Williams,Charles Krauthammer, George Will, Jonah Goldberg, Tim Pawlenty, Michele Bachmann, Wayne LaPierre, Mitt Romney,Pat Toomey, Mike Pence, Bill Bennett, Fred Thompson, and many more. 
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Friday, 4 June 2010
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During a television talk show discussion on tea parties and talk radio, Time's Joe Klein showcased his crack investigative prowess when reflecting upon what he wrote on a napkin.
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Meet Philip Anschutz and the Foundation for a Better life -- the man and the organization behind a movement to inspire a generation and spread optimism. ***
*Sean Penn wishes cancer on his critics
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