IN A 'PINCH': RETHINKING THE FIRST AMENDMENT (Which came first, the 'journalist' or the traitor?)

6.27.06 | Mia T

[Mia T]

ping

[Mia T]

ping

[Mia T]

ping

[Wolverine]

bump

[billbears]

When the founders granted 'The Press' special dispensation, they never considered the possibility that traitors in our midst would game the system. But that is precisely what is happening today

Guess you skipped right over the Sedition Act of 1798 and the main group prosecuted under that Act. Who exactly was prosecuted under that Act? Hmmmmm, oh I know, newspaper editors!!

BTW, what did the 'Father of the Constitution' James Madison do in response to that Act? Ever hear of the Virginia Resolution? One of the first ntroductions of nullification. What did Jefferson and Congress do in response to that Act immediately following the 1800 election to alleviate the wrongs brought on by the Sedition Act? Oh, sorry those are facts....sorry, carry on.

[Romulus]

True in theory.

This, to be honest, is where I stopped reading. What does it even mean? "In theory", as opposed to "in practice"? What kind of truth is that? If something differs between theory and practice, it's not a matter of truth, but of utility, and we have abandoned the argument that truth is indispensible, in favor of a hard-eyed reckoning of how much truth we will tolerate. I will not join you on that slippery slope.

[Beckwith]

Do you ever, ever make a post that doesn't require 48 billion bytes?

[Diavolos]

who is this insane person? i followed you for like a page, but then the post started getting really weird. alien abductions? um...so you don't like hillary huh?

[Mia T]

You are missing my point.

By "gaming the system," I am not referring to the seditious acts of editors. I am referring to the exploitation of the First Amendment by traitors.

[E.G.C.]

Mia T. Bump.

[billbears]

I am referring to the exploitation of the First Amendment by traitors

Yes and that's the same argument used by the Federalists in 1798.

[Mia T]

True in theory.--me

This, to be honest, is where I stopped reading. What does it even mean?...--Romulus

That may be the problem.
If you read the rest of the argument, maybe you would have seen where I was going.

Walter Lippmann, the 20th-century American columnist, wrote, "A free press is not a privilege, but an organic necessity in a great society." True in theory. True even in Lippmann's quaint mid-20th-century America, perhaps. But patently false in this postmodern era of the bubbas and the Pinches.

[theFIRMbss]

I don't know, this thread is a tad psychedelic. I hear a zither . . .

[Mia T]

'Gaming the system.' I'll try to be more precise.

I don't believe the Federalists ever argued that the Democratic-Republicans became journalists in order to commit treason with impunity.

[Mia T]

thanx :)

[Mia T]

... exploring the infinite regions of human consciousness (Tom Wolfe)

Pretty, tho.

[Mia T]

fyi

[Mia T]

Not sure. They're more about the bite. ;)

[Incorrigible]

Wow!! Information overload!!!

Go Pee Wee! Beat Hillary!