Scary News for Political Documentarians

The post that follows was authored by me for a political blog that I write for. While those of you reading this post may or may not be of my political persuasion (I'm a libertarian, by the way), I hope y'all will still find the information interesting and relevant. I haven't seen the film that's mentioned in the article, nor do I intend to (it sounds like a right-wing smear piece). This fact is irrelevant. We should stand up for documentarians, if simply for the sake of the first amendment. Now for the post (as written on March 24):

Something has disturbed me recently. A few of my well-intention friends have professed the desire to have our media nationalized (and in particular, our cinema). The dangers of a nationalized media should be clear (just take skim over a little Nazi history and you’ll quickly see what I mean). Once the government has the ability to regulate what we read, watch, and listen to, it won’t be long before these regulations will be used to suppress the people. Oh, hold on . . . we don’t have to wait for anything. This situation is already a reality.

While there is no way to fully gauge the extent to which our first amendment rights have been trampled on (in terms of media suppression), one might simply turn to the news to find instances of such egregious activity. Recently, I stumbled upon a CNN article which summarized an utterly horrifying Supreme Court case that is currently being decided. The case (Citizens United v. FEC) deals with a documentary film about Hillary Clinton that was supposed to air near election time. A federal court blocked the filmmakers from running promotional adds and airing the documentary on CABLE television. The rationale: airing a politically motivated film during the heat of the election cycle is a violation of campaign finance reform laws (specifically, the abysmal McCain-Feingold act, our favorite war monger’s crowning legislative achievement).

As of right now, the supreme court is ruling on whether or not the federal court violated the first amendment, in blocking the film from airing on television (and cable television, no less). You’d think there would be an obvious ruling in favor of the constitution, but as of right now, the Supreme court is split on the issue. The final ruling will be given around late June. Here’s hoping that the court rules in favor of justice. Unfortunately, the court has an awful record when it come to respecting the constitution. As Thomas Woods has stated before, “The Constitution . . . died a long time ago.”

Click here to read the CNN Article mention above.