Good gosh...well I guess!
Heh, coming into this semi-ancient thread on FR is kind of like being in a boat all your life, then putting on a mask and sticking your face in the water!
Thanks for the ping!
The entire attack of the MSM in this disected article is based on the notion that reader to reader discussions about the MSM articles are unworthy and unnecessary. They forget that the freedom of assembly is also part of the first amendment so that people can and DO exchange ideas.Though they bray all the time about how they cherish the First Amendment, the fact of the matter is that most "journalists", IMO, think the First Amendment is a "collective" right that belongs only in the self-selected establishment media and to a few select "enlightened" "artists" . . . The rest of us (i.e. anyone who doesn't share to the very last detail the narrow world view of Joseph Rago and his fellow Ivy League journalism school graduates who lived off family trust funds before graduating and getting paid to write fatuous nonsense like this column) are just too stupid and/or untrustworthy to be entrusted with that kind of power.
Think of how the left views the Second Amendment as applying only to National Guard units (so-called "militias"). This is the attitude that Rago and the rest of the mainstream media are trying to push in regards to the First these days, with them holding the power to decide just who is worthy of admission to the club of the protected.
The Second Amendment comes far closer to indicating that the public interest requires that I own a gun (for a 'necessary' militia) than the First Amendment does to saying that the public interest requires that the Sultzberger family own a printing press. Operating a press is a right - but in no sense a duty.
Only the media, not the military, has been distracted.The liberal news media is not distracted.
This afternoon, NPR focused on civilian casualties in Somalia and condemnations of the U.S. air strike.
The liberal news media is the de facto propaganda ministry of America's enemies.
Big Journalism never says out loud that "there's a sucker born every minute," but the planted axiom of liberalism is that NOTHING actually matters except PR.The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, in contrast, take for granted that we-the-people deserve respect. But
Therefore we-the-people are only worthy of respect if we can read between the lines and interpret the silence when the dog doesn't bark.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 . . .Worse,
It is acquired wisdom and experience only that teach incredulity, and they very seldom teach it enough. - Adam SmithHalf the truth is often a great lie. - Benjamin FranklinIn effect the presumption of Big Journalism promotes the idea that the Constitution is fatally flawed in its foundational premise. Conservatives deny that - even as we are frequently discomfited by the ability of Big Journalism to convince astounding numbers of voters to vote against the idea that they are competent enough to have a say in their own government.
Big Journalism promotes the idea that Big Journalism is objective, and that we-the-people can't read between the lines and must trust that they are being told the truth objectively.
That explains why "liberals" - who are simply fellow travelers of Big Journalism - are "anti-American," as conservatives find themselves sputtering. The arrogant, condescending conceit of "liberalism" subverts the foundational premise of liberty.
What is to be done? Should we therefore consider repeal of the First Amendment? Heaven forefend. The truth is that the abuses of Big Journalism only are threatening because of misinterpretations of, and outright violations of, the First Amendment. Big Journalism says that the First Amendment makes it free to tell the truth. And that is true, in the same sense that it is true that I am free to eat an optimally healthy diet. I exert some will in that direction, but it cannot honestly be said that no candy or cookies ever pass my lips. The truth is that I am free to eat thousands of excess calories, and that newspapers are free, within broad limits, to be tendentious and even deceptive.
Violations of the First Amendment are actually quite commonplace. The First Amendment bans censorship, and yet broadcasting as we know it is a creature of censorship. An amazing percentage of the population does not read newspapers, and yet the broadcast journalism which they do listen to is philosophically flawed and fundamentally illegitimate.