Tags: censorship | Internet

On Wednesday, YouTube shut down the popular News1News channel, which featured news clips that many progressive bloggers and news sites would add to their stories. On the rare occasion, Raw Story also embedded News1News clips in stories having to do with media coverage. The channel provided clips from all news networks, but often focused on Fox's controversial commentators.

The decision to shut down News1News came after Fox News issued 150 take-down notices to the channel, which they are entitled to do under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, reports Adrian Chen at Gawker. YouTube's policy is to shut down any accounts that receive three or more take-down notices, so News1News was immediately pulled offline.

But Fox News' move appears to be limited to News1News, while other YouTube channels -- those viewed as having conservative leanings -- remain untouched. Chen points out that the Glenn Beck Daily Clips channel continues to operate, although it features 614 clips, as of last count, of Glenn Beck's Fox show. The Conservative Nation channel, with close to 200 clips, is also still online.

Thus, Fox's move will mostly affect stories posted on progressive-leaning blogs, such as Gawker, the Huffington Post and Truthdig, while leaving intact YouTube clips embedded at conservative Web sites. Instead of embedded video, visitors to those sites will now see a notice stating that the video in question is "no longer available."

Read the rest at The Raw Story

Tags: health | Obamacare | our rights

Disregarding the First Amendment’s right to free speech, the Obama Administration has issued a threatening gag order forbidding health insurance companies from disclosing information to their customers about Medicare cuts under its healthcare overhaul.

Ordered by a powerful Senate Democrat, the government agency that oversees Medicare, the Department of Health and Human Services, warned insurance companies this week that they face legal action for informing seniors about the potential for lost benefits under the legislation being considered by Congress.

Tags: News | Protest | Rally

WASHINGTON – Tens of thousands of people marched to the U.S. Capitol on Saturday, carrying signs with slogans such as "Obamacare makes me sick" as they protested the president's health care plan and what they say is out-of-control spending.

Tags: our rights | Police State

“Protestors will be free to speak as much as they like just as long as they can’t be heard.”

“This is America! This used to be America!” Dissent has not been snuffed out. But over the past decade, those in power have cynically abused the legitimate need for public safety and security in order to stifle opponents.

Probably the first known “free speech area” was created by the city of Atlanta during the 1988 Democratic National Convention. One abortion rights advocate complained that the city “put us in a free speech cage.” A decade later, the raucous demonstrations at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle led to greater deployment of the tactic. The National Lawyers Guild, which monitors First Amendment abuses, said it saw “a notable change in police treatment of political protestors” following the 1999 WTO meeting. The Guild said a “pattern of behavior that stifles First Amendment rights” began to emerge in cities across the U.S.