Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid

“The Founding Fathers knew a government can’t control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing.” Ronald Reagan, A Time For Choosing Speech, 1964

The current presidential administration has admitted that they control the information that is given to the press. That’s not necessarily any different than previous administrations, but the difference today is that even though they won’t admit it, the press receives information from this administration as gospel, as if delivered by Moses himself from Mt. Sinai, and as such, not open to interpretation. There is no research. There is no investigation. There is no disagreement. There is in fact, no journalistic integrity, imagined or practiced. And that’s all fine and good in Imaginary Land, where the leaders are all honest and virtuous and strong of heart and pure of soul. But here in the real world, specifically, in 2009 America, it’s not good at all and it is in fact, very frightening.

The president’s mouthpieces took to the airways this last week to express concern and disdain about the Fox News Network. They have opined that Fox News is nothing more than an arm of the Republican Party. The President’s Chief of Staff went on to say that he doesn’t want other news organizations to follow Fox’s lead. We can imagine why. Fox News doesn’t present the president’s policies as manna from heaven. There are commentators there who do, but there are also commentators who aren’t afraid to express their disagreement. Please note that I am not defending Fox News in any way, other than to point out that they do present more than one side to a story, and more than one opinion. I’ll admit that that’s a pretty large compliment, considering what the rest of the media is presenting on a daily basis.

I’ve said it before, and I guess that it’s worth repeating: This is not about left or right. This is not about Democrat or Republican, Liberal or Conservative. This is about a free press freely reporting facts and events as they happen, not as they would wish you to believe they happened. Yes, we know that the press has leaned liberal for many years, but that notwithstanding, whatever you believe about President Richard M. Nixon, the deeds he committed while in office were exposed by a free and open press. He was made to be honest in answer to the research done by dedicated journalists who were willing to invest the time and effort of doing the research. This example could be reduced to a liberal press going after a Republican president, but the point is that the president, whether Republican or Democrat, was guilty of most of the things that the journalists exposed.

So what happens when a liberal press works with a liberal President? Who’s going to keep who honest if the press doesn’t question anything the President does or does not do, and in fact, seems to go all out to protect him from any criticism? I’m not suggesting that our President is doing anything wrong or illegal. Of course I’m not going to tell you that I believe he’s not doing anything wrong, either, but the point of this article is to ask you, how would you know if he or anyone in his staff had doing or is doing anything wrong, if the press was not informing you of it? Do you want to live in that world? Do you want to be controlled by that administration? Does this frighten you in the least? That you may be led to believe what you see on the news or read in the paper, by what a complicit media chooses for you to believe?

These stories about the President trying to discredit Fox News come on the heels of a rumor that there may be some form of government censorship over internet content and usage. That’s the most frightening facet of this story. If Fox News is censored, and the other news outlets have complete control over what you are hearing, and the internet is controlled by the government, where are you going to get your news? Where will you turn for information when the government controls all the information?  Are you afraid yet? Or do you think that this is a fanciful piece written by someone who doesn’t agree with the President’s policies? Someone with an agenda? And that it would be fine if you never read this, or had to consider any of the points made here, or had to worry about anybody else getting the opportunity to read something like this? Is that really the world in which we want to live?

The above quote from Mr. Reagan is from the year 1964. Yes, that’s correct: 1964. It is excerpted from a speech that you can read in its entirety here: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1964reagan1.html Please read the entire speech. The time for choosing has come. I choose freedom of speech, freedom of press, life, and liberty. What will you choose?

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. — 1^st Amendment to the United States Constitution

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