WaitingFor2020
Gold Member
- Banned
- #1
So you're cheering Trump on in his fight with the press and the New York Times. Do you really understand what you're doing?
The press is protected by the 1st Amendment but besides that fact, you don't want to live in a country where the media and press is suppressed and/or state-run and influenced by our government. There obviously IS government influence already, but it was actually much worse during the invasion of Iraq and "shock and awe". The press did not report the number of civilian casualties when we bombed Baghdad. The video shots were panoramic, not intimate or close ups. The videos were carefully curated. They showed a jubilant Iraqi crowd taking down the statue of Saddam Hussein. No bombed out houses or dead babies. When confronted with this, the spokesman for CNN said they didn't show those pictures because they were "pornographic". (CNN’s Aaron Brown On Coverage of the Anti-War Movement | Democracy Now!) It was as close to a state-run media since JFK brought his mistresses into the White House while Jackie was away.
The press went from lapdog during JFK's administration to watch dog when Nixon tried to lie about his involvement in Watergate. Nixon reawakened the press to what their duty was.
You wingnuts continue to complain that this is a communist/socialist country. Those are the countries that don't have a free press or any press at all.
You want to live in a free, open society then subscribe to a newspaper, any newspaper, digital or hard-copy. They are all more reliable than any internet blog disguised as a news site. Why? Because newspapers can be sued for being wrong and a blogger cannot. It's that simple. (Calif. court says bloggers can't be sued)
Do they get things wrong, of course they do. Especially in a digital age where reporters don't have to just meet a 4:00 deadline, they have to meet a deadline every minute of the day since Ted Turner took television news 24/7 over 25 years ago and the internet gave us instantaneous access, accelerated by Google. So choose your sources carefully, choose several and weigh the information. And for god's sake, stay away from the illegitimate sources that are partisan and just nothing but opinion.
The press is protected by the 1st Amendment but besides that fact, you don't want to live in a country where the media and press is suppressed and/or state-run and influenced by our government. There obviously IS government influence already, but it was actually much worse during the invasion of Iraq and "shock and awe". The press did not report the number of civilian casualties when we bombed Baghdad. The video shots were panoramic, not intimate or close ups. The videos were carefully curated. They showed a jubilant Iraqi crowd taking down the statue of Saddam Hussein. No bombed out houses or dead babies. When confronted with this, the spokesman for CNN said they didn't show those pictures because they were "pornographic". (CNN’s Aaron Brown On Coverage of the Anti-War Movement | Democracy Now!) It was as close to a state-run media since JFK brought his mistresses into the White House while Jackie was away.
The press went from lapdog during JFK's administration to watch dog when Nixon tried to lie about his involvement in Watergate. Nixon reawakened the press to what their duty was.
You wingnuts continue to complain that this is a communist/socialist country. Those are the countries that don't have a free press or any press at all.
You want to live in a free, open society then subscribe to a newspaper, any newspaper, digital or hard-copy. They are all more reliable than any internet blog disguised as a news site. Why? Because newspapers can be sued for being wrong and a blogger cannot. It's that simple. (Calif. court says bloggers can't be sued)
Do they get things wrong, of course they do. Especially in a digital age where reporters don't have to just meet a 4:00 deadline, they have to meet a deadline every minute of the day since Ted Turner took television news 24/7 over 25 years ago and the internet gave us instantaneous access, accelerated by Google. So choose your sources carefully, choose several and weigh the information. And for god's sake, stay away from the illegitimate sources that are partisan and just nothing but opinion.
