Journalists–Left & Right–Under Attack: A War on the TRUTH
Last week I wrote an article about Piers Morgan (entitled “Is Agreeing With Piers Morgan a Sign of the Apocalypse?”) regarding Piers’ opinion that the press had been “too soft” on Obama. This is, without a doubt, all too true—but the burning question, which Piers never asked, is why? Is there some Pied Piper effect on the village rats? Is it really the Kool-Aid? Why do journalists handle the POTUS with kid gloves? Is it perhaps a zombie-like fascination, or is it just plain fear?
CNN anchor (yes, CNN) Carol Costello recently reported about the harassment and pressure that “Obama’s people” place on reporters who don’t “play nice” and follow the program, up to and including trying to get reporters fired.
Again, the question should be why? How can an administration have so much unchecked power, seemingly forgoing freedom of the press, as guaranteed to us by the First Amendment of the Constitution? Unless Obama found some sneaky way to eliminate it, the Constitution of the United States still stands.
In addition to our First Amendment, our Fourth Amendment seems to be under attack as well. The Fourth gives us the right to be secure in our own person, our papers and effects. We are protected against unlawful search and seizure. No warrants are to be issued without probable cause. Any warrants that are issued must be specific in what they can search and the persons or things that can be searched. Despite this, according to Daily Caller a journalist’s home was recently invaded by the feds. Under the guise of “searching for firearms”, officers reportedly confiscated a stack of papers that had all of the information on her confidential sources—and those sources are people who the journalist now believes are at risk of exposure through this illegal seizure.
Under protection by the “Shield Law”, journalists are not required to give up their sources. Some journalists prefer to risk jail time rather than give up the source of their information, including Jana Winter, a Fox News reporter, and James Risen, from the very liberal New York Times.
There should be no fear of reprisal for uncovering the truth, no matter how ugly the truth can be. Why are we, as citizens, allowing our liberties to become eroded bit by bit, like water on rock? If our news is being tainted by the fear of someone or some group’s coercion—including our government–we must demand it stop. This is unacceptable—and if we don’t stand up today, there will be no tomorrow.
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”– President Ronald Reagan
