I no longer defend Nancy Pelosi as I once did. Now the conservative sites accuse her and the Dem leadership of mounting an assault on free speech. Is the accusation fair?

The following comes from a conservative website:

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who would like very much to reimpose the old, so-called, “Fairness Doctrine” that once censored conservative opinion on television and radio broadcasting, is scheming to impose rules barring any member of Congress from posting opinions on any internet site without first obtaining prior approval from the Democratic leadership of Congress. No blogs, twitter, online forums - nothing...

The net effect of the regs would be to make it practically impossible for members of Congress to use social media tools to discuss official business or share video of the same with the public while creating a partisan disparity in what little approved messages might be permitted. It would be a very considerable error to assume that the House leadership intends to let dissenting Democratic members post any more freely than Republicans.

Ignore the crack about the Fairness Doctrine: We were better off when equality of debate governed the public airwaves. The rest of the above-quoted text sounds scary enough.

But since the claim comes only from partisan sources, I remain unconvinced. Here is a pertinent letter from Democratic Congressman Michael Capuano. As described by him, the proposed new regs don't seem so bad.

What do you think?