[Mia T]

ping

[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?

[theFIRMbss]

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

[Gone GF]

So the NYT is traitorous but the WSJ isn't?

[AllTheRage]

 

[Mia T]

"What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary."--James Madison

My complaint isn't with the First Amendment, per se. It's with one of its undergirding premises, that man can be his own watchdog. ("The fox guarding the White House, if you will.")

As for your ironic 'suggestions,' one or two actually make good sense to me. ;)

As the NY Times reconfirms daily, one substandard operation by a hack publisher / editor / journalist can do infinitely more mortal harm than, say, your average, run-of-the-mill medical malpractice. So why shouldn't being a 'journalist' require some minimal level of training/competence/character and a license?