How to suppress conservative free speech

By Tom Quiner

National Public Radio made it clear that conservative free speech needs containment by firing Juan Williams a few months ago.

Mr. Williams is no conservative. In fact, he’s pretty liberal in his political views. His crime? He regularly appears as a Fox News analyst. And that is what really got him fired.

The tax-funded NPR management team sent the message that media figures will pay a price if they associate with Fox. They don’t like Fox or their viewers, according to recently-fired NPR bigwig, Ron Schiller:

“The current Republican Party, particularly the Tea Party, is fanatically involved in people’s personal lives and very fundamental Christian. I wouldn’t even call it Christian; it’s this weird evangelical kind of [movement].”

In other words, conservatives are weird for embracing the same beliefs as our Founding Fathers. If you are a reporter and believe as they do and dare state so publicly, your employment opportunities will be limited to Fox News and a smattering of balanced news outlets.

The New York Times has ratcheted up its war on conservative free speech in a creative way: they are removing best-selling books written by conservatives from the famous NY Times Best Sellers List.

They have a problem. Conservatives like to read. They’re bright and engaged and they buy a lot of books. Since the Times established their list in 1942, political books have been listed on the Hardcover Non-Fiction List. Now they will be relegated to the less significant Advice, How-to, and Miscellaneous List.

Does this really suppress free speech? In a way. Barnes and Nobles and Borders tend to display the best-sellers by the front door when you walk into their stores. You can’t miss their huge displays and their signage. You have to walk past the table to get to any other section,

That means that best-selling conservative authors like Mike Huckabee, Dick Morris, and Frank Luntz, all of whom are Fox contributors, will have their books shoved to the back of the store to the same section as the cookbooks.

Will they sell fewer books in those outlets? Most likely.

The guy who made this decision for the NY Times, Bill Keller, makes it clear he doesn’t like people who think like our Founders, calling us …

“… among the most cynical people on planet Earth.”

What is a cynic? According to my dictionary:

“Cynics were members of a school of Greek philosophers that taught that virtue is the only good, and that it is to be won by self-control and austerity …”

Perhaps we conservatives are cynics. It’s obvious that liberals don’t value self-control and austerity.

No wonder they want to suppress conservative free speech.