Newspapers (to use the generic idea) have never been perfect, but the closer they are to blue-collar down-to-earth people, the better they are. The closer reporters are to bow-tied power suckups, the worse they are. For an example: In my town--look at the Boston Globe. A huge scandal involving $15 billion of construction for "the Big Dig" went unnoticed by the Boston Globe over 15-year period. The Globe in the 1990s was rich, and they could have assigned two fulltime beat reporters to the damned project if they chose to. Instead, the blue-blazer-wearing reporters had white wine with the politicians...felt important...and as a result, skeptical digging coverage of this huge project...just didn't...kind of...just didn't happen. (Yes, the graft-filled project ate 15,000 millions of dollars and transformed the entire look of Boston, but the Globe snoozed through it.)
Every reporter wants to rise socially; and they are easily bought out by the promise of hobnobbing with their betters. When the government is licensing reporters, a new branch of tyranny will have sprung up on our soil Our very eyes and ears will have sold out.
Every American is a journalist or reporter--period. As soon as we allow the government of any given year to start defining the Bill of Rights as applying only to "professionals" we are f***ed. This year's government officials may be semi-innocuous, but that's no reason to trust that five years from now a Robert Mugabe or Huey Long or Karl Rove or Anton Rezko or Eliot Spitzer (pick your self-aggrandizing jerk)...will not be using the new regulations to encroach on our freedoms. Tyranny is eternal, like crabgrass. Shield laws, to the extent that they marginalize everyman, are indeed evil.
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orwell46 writes:
You are so right. Say it louder and louder.
Newspapers (to use the generic idea) have never been perfect, but the closer they are to blue-collar down-to-earth people, the better they are. The closer reporters are to bow-tied power suckups, the worse they are. For an example: In my town--look at the Boston Globe. A huge scandal involving $15 billion of construction for "the Big Dig" went unnoticed by the Boston Globe over 15-year period. The Globe in the 1990s was rich, and they could have assigned two fulltime beat reporters to the damned project if they chose to. Instead, the blue-blazer-wearing reporters had white wine with the politicians...felt important...and as a result, skeptical digging coverage of this huge project...just didn't...kind of...just didn't happen. (Yes, the graft-filled project ate 15,000 millions of dollars and transformed the entire look of Boston, but the Globe snoozed through it.)
Every reporter wants to rise socially; and they are easily bought out by the promise of hobnobbing with their betters. When the government is licensing reporters, a new branch of tyranny will have sprung up on our soil Our very eyes and ears will have sold out.
Every American is a journalist or reporter--period. As soon as we allow the government of any given year to start defining the Bill of Rights as applying only to "professionals" we are f***ed. This year's government officials may be semi-innocuous, but that's no reason to trust that five years from now a Robert Mugabe or Huey Long or Karl Rove or Anton Rezko or Eliot Spitzer (pick your self-aggrandizing jerk)...will not be using the new regulations to encroach on our freedoms. Tyranny is eternal, like crabgrass. Shield laws, to the extent that they marginalize everyman, are indeed evil.
Share your thoughts
Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.