Glenn Greenwald: Government pressure on networks is a tactic pioneered by the GOP

(updated below)

Bush supporters have spent the last several days expressing all sorts of shock and outrage that Democratic Senators would write to Disney to protest Path to 9/11 and insinuate that Disney's decision to allow ABC to be used as a partisan propaganda channel is inconsistent with Disney's obligations which are intrinsic to its right to use the public airways. Hugh Hewitt, for instance, proclaimed that Democrats have "reached a new basement," and solemnly frets that he "didn't think such a reprehensible action was possible in the era of robust First Amendment protections."

Perhaps the Democrats who sent the letter were following the example set by Republican Congressman Eric Cantor of Virginia, who wrote a substantively indistinguishable letter (.pdf) on October 23, 2003 to CBS Chairman Les Moonves -- on his official Congressional letterhead -- demanding that the script of The Reagans meet his approval (emphasis added):

Based on initial media reports, I have serious concerns about "The Reagans" . . . I want to be assured that it is not, as the New York Times reported yesterday, "deconstruction of Reagan's presidency shot through a liberal lens, exaggerating his foibles and giving short shrift to his accomplishments" . . .