Republicans want broadcasters to censor this ad



The battle over whether it’s true that the Republican plan would “end Medicare” is about to play out in a critical way in New Hampshire. The National Republican Congressional Committee, which oversees House races for the GOP, has written a sharply-worded letter demanding that a New Hampshire TV station yank an ad making that claim. Whether the ad gets taken down could help set a precedent for whether other stations will air Dem TV ads making this argument, which is expected to be a central message for Dems in the 2012 elections.

Republicans may have passed a plan to end Medicare and replace it with vouchers for private insurance, but apparently they don't want their political opponents to be able to tell anybody about it:

You can watch the ad, which is being aired by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, at the top of this post, but the thing that has got Republicans all hot and bothered is the ad's assertion that the GOP voted to end Medicare. They say they want television stations to censor the ad because they don't believe their proposal would completely end Medicare...it would only end Medicare as we know it. (This is the same stupid argument Politifact made.)

According to the GOP's logic, if they had proposed eliminating the fire department and replaced it with a program giving you vouchers to purchase firefighting services from a private company, it would unfair to say they had proposed getting rid of the fire department. As if that weren't crazy enough, they want television broadcasters to censor anyone who disagrees with them.

You really couldn't picture a more perfect example of the GOP's hypocrisy on freedom of speech: the party that claims the U.S. Constitution gives corporations political rights also believes those very same corporations should censor grassroots political activists.