Lisa Murkowski bullies radio station – Palin strikes back!

Someone emailed me earlier to write about this, and while I don’t normally do much outside of video content, I thought I’d make a special exception in this case. In fact while I was researching it, Sarah Palin released a new facebook note which spells this out perfectly:

Yesterday, Lisa Murkowski’s hired guns threatened radio host Dan Fagan, and more importantly, the station that airs Fagan’s show, with legal action for allegedly illegal “electioneering.” The station, unlike Murkowski, who is flush with millions of dollars from vested corporate interests, does not have a budget for a legal defense. So it did what any small market station would do when threatened by Beltway lawyers charging $500 to $1000 an hour – they pulled Dan Fagan off the air.

Does all this sound heavy handed? It is. It is an interference with Dan Fagan’s constitutional right to free speech. It is also a shocking indictment against Lisa Murkowski. How low will she go to hold onto power? First, she gets the Division of Elections to change its write-in process – a process that Judge Pfiffner correctly determined had been in place without change for 50 years. She is accepting financial support from federal contractors, an act that is highly questionable and now pending before the FEC. And today, she played her last card. She made it clear that if you disagree with her and encourage others to exercise their civic rights, she’ll take you off the air.

The concept of “electioneering” involves several issues, but typically refers to campaigning at the polls, which is appropriately banned. Under federal law, it can also mean paying for advertising on broadcast media during a federal election cycle, and it requires disclosures if done by groups and corporations. Fagan used satire to mock Murkowski’s write-in efforts and encouraged Alaskan’s to run as write-in candidates. That is not illegal. That is free speech.

You can click over to read the rest, but Palin basically finishes up by stating that Dan Fagan is not a fan of hers and has attacked her family in a myriad of ways on the radio. But despite all of that, she still believes in Dan’s right to speak freely without intimidation and she stands with Dan on this issue. Truly a class act.

Just as a note, here’s the background information on why Murkowski had Dan Fagan taken off the air. He was helping promote this, which I think is hilarious:

The number of write-in candidates for Alaska’s U.S. Senate seat has swelled to about 150 amid an effort by conservatives to target the write-in candidacy of GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

The number by Thursday’s write-in deadline had grown from just a handful earlier this week.

Murkowski mounted her bid after losing the primary to tea-party backed Joe Miller, and some conservatives have urged Alaskans to make their own write-in runs

Those conservatives include Dan Riehl, who issued a call on Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government website to “highlight the chaos brought about by Lisa Murkowski’s seemingly unending quest for power” with her campaign.

It’s not immediately clear how many of those running did so because of the effort, though the write-in list includes people who’ve openly supported Miller.

Yeah, two can play at that game. Tip of the hat to Dan Riehl at Riehl World View and Dan Fagan.