March 7, 2004 - For the second time the Republican National Committee has embarked on a campaign to stifle voices opposed to Bush Administration policies by threatening the licenses of television broadcasters that air ads opposed to the President. The threat was contained in a letter signed by Jill Holtzman Vogel, RNC Chief Lawyer and addressed to 250 Television Stations across the nation. The letter claims that ads placed by Moveon.Org are illegally financed and demands that the stations decline to run them. Echoing the earlier attempt to intimidate broadcasters Ms. Vogel writes:

" As a broadcaster licensed by the Federal Communications Commission, you have a responsibility to the viewing public and to your licensing agency to refrain from complicity in any illegal activity, specifically in this case, violations of our nation's Federal Election Laws. Since this is a third party political advertisement and not a candidate sponsored message, your station is under no obligation to broadcast this advertisement"

The threat to the broadcaster's license is implicit. Air the Moveon.org ads and the Bush Administration will move on your broadcasting license. Not since Richard Nixon's Enemies list and the use of the FBI and IRS to intimidate journalists has an administration been so blatant in its attempts to silence American voices. Stifling voices seems to be part of President Bush's vision of America . For the past year the Department of Commerce has been threatening prosecution against publishers who edit or even quote from anything written in any country subject to US economic sanctions.

What ads are the Bush campaign and the RNC afraid of? If you are curious you can view them at http://www.moveon.org/press/ads.html . One is an ad that CBS rejected for the Super Bowl broadcast. The ad, titled "Child Pay", has been running on cable and on the Web. Its message is simple. It is our children and grandchildren who will pay for the Bush administration's deficits. That is one message that the RNC is trying to silence by not-so-subtly threatening government retaliation if the ads run. Another called 'Polygraph" features the President's statements pushing us into the Second Iraqi War. It is not surprising that the Republicans would prefer that they not be broadcast.

Neither is it surprising that the RNC would bludgeon broadcasters with threats to their licenses. But it is surprising that they would arrogantly circulate a news release trumpeting the un-American tactic. http://63.80.144.2/GetRelease.asp?id=131-03052004 It is significant that in neither this case nor in the previous instance has the RNC filed neither a complaint with the FCC against any broadcaster nor with the FEC against Moveon.org. To do so would require that Ms. Vogel prove her claims that the ads were paid for illegally, a burden she does not have in writing a threatening letter.