To quote Robert Gates at the 2007 USNA graduation:
...the Founding Fathers wisely understood that the Congress, a free press and a nonpolitical military are needed in a free country.
“The press is not the enemy and to treat it as such is self-defeating,” he said.
Yes, years of being the media's darling have really helped McCain, haven't they?
Gates is right, were we talking about the 1950s. Today's media is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party, and it must be opposed in the same manner.
Free press? Sure!
Free from restraint to publish? Yes, usually.
Free to intrude wherever and whenever they please? Like a self-appointed fourth branch of government? No. The constitution makes no such guarantee, and based on their behavior lately, they don’t deserve favors.
Well, they’ve certainly turned into the enemy.
Hey, photogs, and camera crews are allowed in. Just not the talking heads that want to interrupt her meetings just so they can score points with their political masters.
I actually approve of this, doesn't bother me in the least, and I don't think thinking Americans will mind it either.
Freedom of the Press also carries with it the obligation to report the facts not spin or their own opinion. The media covering the campaign has crossed and line and wouldn't know Ethics in Journalism if it hit them in the face. Let's put it this way, my daughter is a reporter but unlike the media that is in the tank for Obama, she plays it down the middle. At her graduation in May of 2007, the Dean of the Journalism College said he would hunt down any graduate who didn't report the facts, used their own agenda for news, or spun a story. He told them they had been taught Ethics so use them or answer to him.
These people were kicked out because they were NOT members of a “free press”; they were Obamahacks who get their paychecks from media organs who are trying to manipulate this election through intimidation, vile smears, and illegalities. (Sorry, Obama, that won’t work outside of Chicago.) The real, free press are the brave men and women who dare to go against Obamania and actually investigate and print the truth. When we hear as much about Obama’s laughable policy flip-flops, Biden’s son’s lobbying, Rezko, Ayers, Johnson, Raines, and Wright as we’ve heard about Bristol Palin’s pregnancy or Sarah Palin buying a used tanning bed with her own money, or the Palin dog pooping in the neighbor’s lawn, I’ll believe in the so-called “free” press again.
The media is trying to steal this election for their hand-picked messiah: we can either allow it or fight it. It is your choice.
Give it a rest, Hussein-boy.
The MSM attempts to set the rules, and to define the enemy. They were never elected. Hell, they're not even nominated.
The quote presumes common standards of civility, common courtesy and respect for the event. Those, and a free press, are not mutually exclusive.
The military largely views the press as the enemy. I mean that both literally and figuratively.
Gates's point is that since he and the Pentagon are not going to tell the media the truth, for reasons ranging from serious to trivial, and since the media is going to expose whatever truth they can get their hands on as payback, even if service members die because of it, it would make his job easier if nobody took this process personally.
You could write a book on this phenomenon, but suffice to say, the context here is to a different audience than a civilian leader.
Obviously, he needed to leave his job.
In all our prior “wars,” the press was muzzled. World War 1 and World War 2 were greatly helped by the censorship of Washington.
The press is free, just not free to demand whatever they want from a candidate. Especially one they’ve raked over the coals.
Sarah Palin has it right: she gives the press limited access. That is all they need, and they deserve less.
However, simply claiming that some entity is "The Press" by no means makes it so. In many ways, we are all the press. This is especially true with the internet.
That’s only true if you’re dealing with a TRUE FREE PRESS, not the biased, agenda-driven propagandists that are currently controlling the MSM. The more we curtail their access the more they will realize that Americans appreciate TRUE journalists, and NOT partisan hacks. REAL journalists should be awarded a LOT of access, exclusive interviews, etc... etc... That’s the way it used to work, at least as it appears to me (I’m a youngin’). Journalists used to be respected for fair and balanced news. There are very, very few journalists nowadays (at least in the National MSM).
I suspect that you could probably find some gems across the country that would LOVE to come to Washington though. Maybe that’s how the White House Press Passes should be handed out with this next administration. Forget those who say - well, I’ve been here so long you HAVE to let us in (like Helen Thomas). Go to major papers around the country and search out the GOOD journalists, and invite THEM to Washington. Then maybe the MSM IN Washington will get a clue?
At least that’s all JMHO. Over the last 8 years we have seen more than our fair share of “enemy” behavior from the ranks of the “journalistic elite” (i.e. The New York Times). Something has to be done, and this, IMHO, is a good first step. I would never dream of curtailing the press’s right to print stories on whatever topic they wanted, however, that doesn’t mean they have to have full access. Press Releases should suffice. For those who ask genuine questions, even TOUGH questions (not propaganda driven leading questions) - reward them as I said before.
It all depends what "The Press"means, to quote a famous former President...