by TChris

The Bush administration has deprived you of your ability to watch Al-Manar, "the television station of Lebanon's Hezbollah militants that has glorified suicide bombers." Declaring the television station a "terror organization," the administation pulled the plug on its satellite feed to the United States.

[Hassan Fadlallah, Al-Manar's news director,] told The Associated Press, "This is a blatant attack on press freedoms and an exercise in intellectual terrorism against the voices that are opposed to U.S. and Israeli policies."

The State Department contends that Al-Manar should not be allowed to spread hatred (a job the administration apparently intends to reserve for the extreme right). While Al-Manar's message is often deplorable, our country is founded on the belief that we, as individuals, are best able to decide whether offensive opinions deserve our audience. Our government's decision to censor the flow of information dishonors the values embodied in the First Amendment.