https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/11/resistance_czechoslovakia_and_america.html
As we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the liberation of Eastern Europe, a growing portion of our own political system has become dedicated to totalitarianism. We can better understand our own socialist media culture when we revisit one Eastern Bloc country’s resistance to a notorious Soviet crackdown. In the Prague Spring of 1968, Soviet tanks invaded and reimposed full communist tyranny after Czechoslovakia had temporarily loosened the reins of Soviet control. The Czechs responded heroically, practicing various forms of resistance and showing complete unity in a way that the United States of today could not match. (The full story of the Czech resistance has been famously recounted in Phil Kaufman’s film The Unbearable Lightness of Being.)
When the Soviet tanks suddenly rumbled through Prague and other Czech cities in August of 1968, the Czechs responded with unified action that would seem impossible in similar circumstances in the U.S. today. The Czech response of 1968 would put modern American institutions to shame.
Almost immediately, Czech radio and television stations began broadcasting unauthorized programs denouncing the invasion and presenting actual news to the Czechoslovakian people. These stations broadcast from undisclosed locations, moving around the country on a nightly basis to avoid detection. In today’s United States, could we count on our mainstream media to oppose a totalitarian crackdown? Would our media overcome their own totalitarian sympathies in order to transmit clandestine broadcasts?
As Czechoslovakian radio struggled to stay on the air, they used familiar voices to convey the news. The broadcasters could not identify themselves, but their voices were known to the listeners from years of service. The recognition of these trusted voices reassured the listeners that the broadcasts were authentic. Today in America, recognizable news anchor voices would have the opposite effect. Americans do not trust the network newscasts. Instead, many Americans get their news from late night “comedians,” most of whom spend their airtime advocating the very policies that motivated the Soviet tanks in 1968. Late-night comedians are expert at the kind of character assassination and “two minutes hate” that are used in countries where the law is enforced under the treads of tanks. They would not rally Americans in opposition to a totalitarian crackdown.
