Posted on 01/16/2017 1:37:44 PM PST by Maceman
I was just watching Shepard Smith interviewing someone from the Wall Street Journal about the possibility that the Trump administration may expand the White House press area to include people from outside the mainstream "Press."
They were essentially in agreement with the idea that "The Press" is a Constitutionally recognized "institution" charged with making sure that the President can be properly questioned on behalf of the public.
They expressed concern that Trump might use the expansion of the press room to avoid answering "tough" questions by the "Professional Press," and instead only take softball questions from those renegade interlopers who might lack the "professional credibility" to make the needed "tough" inquiries.
I know we are going to hear this ridiculous complaint a lot from the media now, and I think we need to put a stop once and for all to the idea that "The Press" has some sort of special Constitutional privilege that allows it particular political access.
The fact is that from a Consitutional perspective, there is no such thing as "The Press" in the sense of being a "professional" elite group whose members are allowed preferential treatment under law.
In the Constitutional sense, “the press” is a technological device for disseminating information. One cannot be a “member” of the press. One can only have ownership of, or access to, a press.
An originalist interpretation of the Constitution would be that any device or vehicle which enables one to state and publicize one’s views is a “press,” whether it be moveable type, offset printing, TV, radio, or the Internet.
"Freedom of the press" means that we all have the right to own a press or pay any provider who wishes to sell us access to a device or vehicle through which we citizens can freely publicize our ideas.
In this regard, no CNN or CBS anchor has anymore claim to special treatment for being part of "The Press" than does any blogger, or any Internet user who posts on Facebook or any other website.
"Freedom of the press" applies equally to every citizen seeking to use a technological device to record and publicize his or her opinion.
Even Ben Carson fell for the incorrect idea that "The Press" is some type of special institution in a recent TV interview where he said: “There is only one business in America that is protected by the Constitution, and that is the press. They were supposed to expose and inform the people in a non-partisan way. . . ."
It's time that American citizens reject this ridiculous and dangerous idea that the so-called "Professional Media" are due any special legal deference. The disastrous and destructive state of the current professional elitist MSM is the predictable result of such a crazy, self-serving misinterpretation of a fundamental Constitutional right.
I hope that the Trump administration and its supporters will make this point loudly, clearly and often in responding to leftist MSM complaints about White House policies regarding "Press" access.
Don’t le Mumble Bumbler see you post that.
There are Freepers waging an unholy war against people who embrace news from outside the established professionals.
Tough questions like, “President Odumbo, how did you get so doggone wonderful?”
“They expressed concern that Trump might use the expansion of the press room to avoid answering “tough” questions by the “Professional Press,” and instead only take softball questions from those renegade interlopers who might lack the “professional credibility” to make the needed “tough” inquiries.”Remarkable how much “tougher” the questions from Democrats are when directed at Republicans than they are when directed at Democrats.. . . and the Democrats who are journalists have completely blown their “objectivity” cover. It is admissible to claim to be trying to be objective, it is even admirable if it is true. But because candor about the reasons why you might not be objective is the sine qua non of a good-faith attempt at objectivity, a claim of actual objectivity excludes the possibility that you are actually even trying to be objective.
Journalists who think they can control the government have an inherent temptation to be naive toward government and cynical about society. Since society is, according to Paine in Common Sense, “a blessing,” and government is merely “a necessary evil,” the common tendency to use “society” as a euphemism for “government” is exactly a reflection of cynicism toward the former and naivete toward the latter.
Yes, clearly. Because if a whole building full of people getting paid can't do the job, then we must embrace the one guy with a laptop. Because he must be good.. because nobody will pay him.
He must be good because he has no building.
Yeah.
Both the 1st and 2nd apply to We The People, not to a select elite.
Leftists always want to restrict rights to themselves and their favored classes and groups.
I come into FR because it is HERE I get the education I should have gotten when I was younger ... like .... in public school !
But. but, but, Trump needs to quit tweeting!/
They agreed that the press was a “Constitutionally recognized “institution” charged with making sure that the President can be properly questioned on behalf of the public.” Wrong, the press is not charged with anything. And, if they were, then they do not do their “job” by covering for and spinning for Democrat presidents while attacking, with malice, Republican presidents.
“The informative function asserted by representatives of the organized press in the present cases is also performed by lecturers, political pollsters, novelists, academic researchers, and dramatists.”
MOST interesting-——I would never have considered a novelist or dramatist as being members of the press.
.
Moviemakers, novelists, screenwriters, artists - all have successfully argued for many, many years that Amendment One covers their activities. I tend to agree.
great....the next time someone tries to gun control us with a list or a fee...fight back by demanding...
that everyone who considers themselves as media, line up for their names to be put on a list and pay a fee for the right to excersise their right to write.
What, he’s gonna get interviewed by Glozell?
Thanks for your posts over the years. Thanks for the vehicle.
FreeRepublic BUMP!
Press #1 for FReepers.
I come into FR because it is HERE I get the education I should have gotten when I was younger ... like .... in public school !
The natural disposition is always to believe. It is acquired wisdom and experience only that teach incredulity, and they very seldom teach it enough. The wisest and most cautious of us all frequently gives credit to stories which he himself is afterwards both ashamed and astonished that he could possibly think of believing.We come to FR to pool our “incredulity” because we know that individually we just are neither as knowledgeable nor as skeptical as we ought to be.The man whom we believe is necessarily, in the things concerning which we believe him, our leader and director, and we look up to him with a certaindegree of esteem and respect. But as from admiring other people we come to wish to be admired ourselves; so from being led and directed by other people we learn to wish to become ourselves leaders and directors . . .
The desire of being believed, the desire of persuading, of leading and directing other people, seems to be one of the strongest of all our natural desires. - Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759)
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