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Pollak: Media, Tech Self-Censorship over ‘Whistleblower’ Marks Death of Free Press in United States
Breitbart ^ | 27 Dec 2019 | Joel B. Pollak

Posted on 12/28/2019 1:11:04 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum

The United States of America no longer has a free press as of December 2019.

Press freedom was already in danger, as Mark Levin noted, as journalists became political activists in the Obama era, and feuded with the president in the Trump era. But press freedom could have thrived in a more openly partisan marketplace of ideas. In the end, press freedom was killed by the press itself, in the decision not to report the name of the so-called “whistleblower” in the impeachment crisis.

His name — which Breitbart News published after it was first revealed by RealClearInvestigations — is no mystery. Apparently, his identity was the worst-kept secret in Washington, D.C. The Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) concluded in September that the “whistleblower,” a CIA employee, had shown “political bias,” and favored “a rival political candidate,” most likely former Vice President Joe Biden, for whom he reportedly worked.

The “whistleblower” triggered a process that could still lead to the ouster of the president. (His own lawyer, Mark S. Zaid, called for a “coup,” via impeachment, in January 2017, shortly after Trump had taken office.)

It would seem extraordinary for the world’s leading democracy to allow an election to be overturned based on the actions of a rogue CIA employee working with the opposition — and even stranger not to be told his name.

Moreover, the “whistleblower” himself admitted that he did not have first-hand information of the events he had described. It would seem an urgent matter of national security, and public interest, to know who was feeing him information — whether it was an enemy, foreign or domestic.

If the hysteria over Russian influence in the 2016 election had any useful lesson, it was that we ought to be curious about where information comes from, and why.

(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: media; msm; technotyranny
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1 posted on 12/28/2019 1:11:04 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
It happened waaaaay before that, FRiend


             

2 posted on 12/28/2019 1:14:25 PM PST by tomkat
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

So ... why was the name ‘Eric Ciamarella’ not mentioned once in this Breitbart article?


3 posted on 12/28/2019 1:18:44 PM PST by bassmaner (Hey commies: I'm a white male, and guilty of NOTHING! Sell your 'white guilt' elsewhere.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

They have all the ‘free’ press they want....JUST DON’T lie, spin, and contrive!


4 posted on 12/28/2019 1:19:59 PM PST by TribalPrincess2U (0bama's agenda�Divide and conquer seems to be working.?)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

5 posted on 12/28/2019 1:25:26 PM PST by Bon mots
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Bunch of Breitbart morons. Bitching about Ciarmela’s has name not being used, while not using the name themselves.


6 posted on 12/28/2019 1:28:50 PM PST by DesertRhino (Dog is man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up. ....)
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To: bassmaner

“So ... why was the name ‘Eric Ciamarella’ not mentioned once in this Breitbart article?”

Redundancy?


7 posted on 12/28/2019 1:30:13 PM PST by traderrob6
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The problem is not that the press isn’t free, but that it’s corrupt. The only threat to a free press comes from the left, of which the MSM is a part, so the freedom of the MSM itself is not in jeopardy. But they indeed threaten the freedom of dissenters in the alternative press and blogosphere.


8 posted on 12/28/2019 1:35:08 PM PST by Steve_Seattle
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To: bassmaner

Not only that , but he is still referred to as the “whistle blower”. Let’s be honest - he is a spy. Spies get executed, not protected.


9 posted on 12/28/2019 1:43:43 PM PST by NTHockey (Rules of engagement #1: Take no prisoners. And to the NSA trolls, FU)
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To: tomkat

‘It happened waaaaay before that, FRiend’

You took the words right off of my keyboard, came on here to say just that.

And I have come to realize that the MSM has been a very destructive force in this Nation for a long time. Perhaps much longer than I even now realize.

They are just garbage now, they are fish wrap, packing material, bird cage liner; that is all, they are useless for their intended, constitutionally demarcated use.

And, not to put too fine a point on it, that’s a problem.


10 posted on 12/28/2019 1:44:14 PM PST by jocon307 (Dem party delenda est!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Where does the idea that a CIA “whistleblower” is entitled to absolute anonymity? My understanding from various articles is that there is no legal basis for this — it’s just made up Democrap.

My guess is that Breitbart and others fear being blamed for promoting threats against the Schiff-blower or complicity if something “happens” to him. You could justify censoring most of the news with that type of argument.


11 posted on 12/28/2019 1:47:00 PM PST by Chewbarkah
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To: Chewbarkah
. . . if something “happens” to him.

I suspect Ciaramella is in far more danger from the globalist left than he is from any other source. Democrats would love to (1) silence him so that he cannot testify on his sources and coordination, and (2) pretend that this evil traitor is a martyr. I would be shocked if Brennan, Comey, and their co-conspirators had any qualms at all about killing one of their useful idiots.

12 posted on 12/28/2019 2:02:25 PM PST by Pollster1 ("Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed")
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To: jocon307
It's my firm belief that very little of the progress our internal communist enemies have made would have been possible without the active complicity of the mass market Enemedia co-conspirators nd felow travelers.

13 posted on 12/28/2019 2:09:55 PM PST by tomkat
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

That the “Free Press” is supposed to be a check against government but now only checks one party and would willingly hide the crimes of the other...means we have no “Free Press”, just propaganda.

It’s been going on a long time, the only question is really how long? It’s probably decades. It’s just obvious now and they’re not even trying to hide it, apparently they’re immune from consequences.

I believe there should be a “Bar” (lawyer) equivalent that issues licenses for major “news” networks. If ethics are violated they should have their license revoked. I get that anyone can be an independent journalist but when you’re recognized as a main source of information at the highest levels their needs to be more accountability.


14 posted on 12/28/2019 2:20:58 PM PST by fuzzylogic (welfare state = sharing of poor moral choices among everybody)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum; tomkat

15 posted on 12/28/2019 2:22:02 PM PST by Travis McGee (EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: tomkat

Yep. Mr. Joel B. Pollak is off by about a century. Walter Duranty was the Moscow Bureau Chief of The New York Times for fourteen years (1922–1936) following the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War (1918–1921). He was a notorious commie champion and sympathizer.

The leftist press has been agitating for communism since it was born in the Soviet Union.


16 posted on 12/28/2019 2:22:25 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: NTHockey

That leftist narrative of a sympathetic “whistleblower” protecting freedom from the evil Trump drives me nuts. He was not in a position to be a whistleblower, didn’t follow protocol, had the ICIG change the procedures to allow hearsay, didn’t observe anything firsthand, and didn’t observe any crimes.

“Spy” covers it.


17 posted on 12/28/2019 2:25:22 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Pollster1

There have been lots of mysterious deaths the past 20 years all related to big people under investigation. Bumping off political enemies is standard MO for the Deep State crowd.


18 posted on 12/28/2019 2:27:35 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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Break up Comcast and ATT


19 posted on 12/28/2019 2:27:57 PM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: jocon307
And I have come to realize that the MSM has been a very destructive force in this Nation for a long time. Perhaps much longer than I even now realize.

It does go back a long way. -Tom

In 1807 statesman Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter complaining about the misinformation in newspapers:
Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.

The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.

20 posted on 12/28/2019 2:36:39 PM PST by Capt. Tom
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