THE ASSAULT ON FOX NEWS - AT 6:23 P.M. ET:  Strategic analyst Ralph Peters, writing in the New York Post, examines the administration's assault on Fox News, and finds it of a piece with leftist attacks on the press worldwide.  (Note:  The New York Post is owned by News Corporation, which also owns Fox News.):

The Obama administration's un-American attempt to vilify Fox News only increased the network's popularity. But this White House debacle can't be judged in isolation: There's a global left-wing assault on the freedom of information.

Intense leftist sentiment in most of the international media isn't enough. Extremists seek total control.

True.  And there are leftist journalists who would give up their freedoms if it meant their side wins.

The Obama administration's aborted Fox hunt simply aligned our government with the hounds of the global left. Our Constitution and common sense frustrated the White House apparatchiks -- but other leftist and radical regimes are crushing press freedoms, murdering dissenting journalists and turning the media into a state weapon.

In country after country where Obama's been tapping re-set buttons, the media are under assault:

Peters lists Russia, Venezuela, Argentina, Iran, and Egypt.  In each case, Peters says, "Obama looks away."

So the White House temper tantrum over the popularity of Fox News is perfectly understandable: It's just leftists being leftists. They fear that left-wing theories, long discredited in practice, will die like vampires if exposed to the light of day.

For decades, the left has "owned" our media (as well as our schools and universities). Even today, Fox News remains the single national voice of dissent in television. Every other broadcast or cable network that presents the news demonstrates a left-of-center bias, from the button-down liberalism of ABC through the soft-core activism of CNN to the screwball extremism of MSNBC.

If the left's vision for humanity is so superior, you'd think leftists could live with alternative views. But the left is totalitarian at heart and can no more tolerate debate than al Qaeda's fanatics can accept religious diversity.

COMMENT:  Very well said.  In addition to the left being totalitarian, it is also juvenile, representing an adolescent view of the world.  Ever try arguing with an adolescent?

While the attack on Fox has been condemned by many responsible journalists, others have remained silent, the better to be in with the in group. 

And we may not have seen the last of this kind of assault.  The FCC - Obama's FCC - may well have some ideas about talk radio down the line. 

And again, there is silence in the very precincts where we have a right to expect outrage - the universities, the law schools, the so-called "civil liberties" organizations.  There's a lot of mislabeling of groups going on.

October 31, 2009