Posted on 03/13/2019 3:25:07 AM PDT by BadLands59
A handful of Democrats on Tuesday introduced the Journalist Protection Act, which makes it a federal crime to cause bodily harm to a journalist or intimidate him or her from gathering information for a news report. The bill was brought about by Rep. Eric Swalwell (CA), Sen. Richard Blumenthal (CT) and Bob Menendez (NJ).
According to the trio, it was important for them to introduce this bill because of President Donald Trump's "extreme hostility toward the press." The group cites Trump's standoff with CNN over "fake news" and him calling the press “the enemy of the American people,” as examples.
The group believes Trump's so-called rhetoric on the mainstream media is to blame for Americans' stance on reporters and the news media. And, without coming out and directly saying it, they're blaming Trump for journalists getting attacked in the field. In these legislators' mind, these attacks wouldn't take place if Trump didn't use his rhetoric to wind people up.
“From tweeting #FakeNews to proclaiming his contempt for the media during campaign rallies, the President has created a hostile environment for members of the press,” Swalwell said. “A healthy democracy depends on a free press unencumbered by threats of violence. We must protect journalists in every corner of our country if they are attacked physically while doing their job, and send a strong, clear message that such violence will not be tolerated. That is what my bill, the Journalist Protection Act, would do.”
“Under this administration, reporters face a near-constant barrage of verbal threats, casting the media as enemies of the American people and possible targets of violence. This bill makes clear that engaging in any kind of violence against members of the media will simply not be tolerated," Blumenthal said.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
Does this mean Sarah Sanders couldn’t slap around Jim Acosta anymore? She actually hasn’t done enough against him as it is.
>> which makes it a federal crime to cause bodily harm to a journalist or intimidate him or her from gathering information for a news report.
Bullstalin. Obama locked up filmmakers he disapproved of and spied on a journalist’s computer.
They know the media/Dem collusion is about to be outed.
I guess editorializing is just fine unless it’s against the editorializers. Freedom of speech for me but not for thee.
Should have a law to protect the public against fake news.
DEMocracy?
“Can we get some muscle over here?”
STROLL DOWN MEMORY LANE--- REMEMBER THIS?---At a recent
comeback to repaint his miserable 8-year term, Obama lacerated Pres Trump:
" I complained plenty about Fox News, but you never heard me call them enemies of the people.”
REALITY CHECK----N-o-o-o-o, Obama didnt do that....he just unleashed the full force of the DOJ, in the person of AG Eric Holder, to pounce on Fox reporter James Rosen AND to intimidate Rosen's family. Holder and Obama issued a court order for Fox News reporter James Rosen's emails, that labeled Rosen a criminal "co-conspirator." More likely Fox News said things or published stories Obama didn't like.......or got too close to unveiling his criminality.
==================================================
SOURCE theguardian.com
Circa 2013
Obama and AG Holder did more than seize a Fox News reporter’s emails while suggesting he was a criminal “co-conspirator” in a leak case — it did so under one of the most serious wartime laws in America, the Espionage Act. It is now well known that the Obama justice department has prosecuted more government leakers under the 1917 Espionage Act than all prior administrations combined - in fact, double the number of all such prior prosecutions.
But as the controversy over the Obama and Holder’s pursuit of the phone records of AP reporters illustrated, this obsessive fixation in defense of secrecy also targets, and severely damages, journalists specifically and the news-gathering process in general.
New revelations emerged yesterday in the Washington Post that are perhaps the most extreme yet when it comes to the DOJ’s attacks on press freedoms. It involves the prosecution of State Department adviser Stephen Kim, a naturalized citizen from South Korea who was indicted in 2009 for allegedly telling Fox News’ chief Washington correspondent, James Rosen, that US intelligence believed North Korea would respond to additional UN sanctions with more nuclear tests - something Rosen then reported. Kim did not obtain unauthorized access to classified information, nor steal documents, nor sell secrets, nor pass them to an enemy of the US.
Instead, the DOJ alleges that he merely communicated this innocuous information to a journalist - something done every day in Washington - and, for that, this arms expert and long-time government employee faces more than a decade in prison for “espionage”.
The focus of a Post report is that the Obama DOJ’s surveillance of Rosen extended far beyond even what Obama did to AP reporters. The FBI tracked Rosen’s movements in and out of the State Department, traced the timing of his calls, and - most amazingly - obtained a search warrant to read two days worth of his emails, as well as all of his emails with Kim. In this case, said the Post, “investigators did more than obtain telephone records of a working journalist suspected of receiving the secret material.” It added that “court documents in the Kim case reveal how deeply investigators explored the private communications of a working journalist”.
But what makes this revelation particularly disturbing is that Obama's DOJ, in order to get this search warrant, insisted that Fox's Rosen - a journalist - committed serious crimes. The DOJ specifically argued that by encouraging his source to disclose classified information - something investigative journalists do every day - Rosen himself broke the law.
Describing an affidavit from FBI agent Reginald Reyes filed by the DOJ, the Post reports [emphasis added]: “Reyes wrote that there was evidence Rosen had broken the law, ‘at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator’. That fact distinguishes his case from the probe of the AP, in which the news organization is not the likely target. Using italics for emphasis, Reyes explained how Rosen allegedly used a ‘covert communications plan’ and quoted from an e-mail exchange between Rosen and Kim that seems to describe a secret system for passing along information. . . .
However, it remains an open question whether it’s ever illegal, given the First Amendment’s protection of press freedom, for a reporter to solicit information. No reporter, including Rosen, has been prosecuted for doing so.” Under US law, it is not illegal to publish classified information. That fact, along with the First Amendment’s guarantee of press freedoms, is what has prevented the US government from ever prosecuting journalists for reporting on what the US government does in secret. This newfound theory of the Obama DOJ - that a journalist can be guilty of crimes for “soliciting” the disclosure of classified information - is a means for circumventing those safeguards and criminalizing the act of investigative journalism itself.
These latest revelations show that this is not just a theory but one put into practice, as the Obama and Holder submitted official court documents accusing a journalist of committing crimes by doing this. ---Snip---
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Obama and Holder wouldnt lie to a court of law. Would they? (smirk)
Until a conservative is threatened. Then the question will be: Is he a real journaist?
Dems gotta protect their propaganda arm.....
Social media is already doing this. These outlets just want the government to sponsor and protect media censoring.
Don’t forget banning Fox news.
Banning is one thing. He punished people (the youtube filmmaker falsely blamed for Benghazi and Dinesh D’souza) and spied on a CBS reporter.
https://nypost.com/2014/10/27/ex-cbs-reporter-government-related-entity-bugged-my-computer/
“In her book, Attkisson says CBS lost interest in her coverage of the deadly attack on the US Embassy in Benghazi, Libya, and killed her stories of the federal “Fast and Furious” gun-running scandal.”
The press is a bunch of baying hounds, tools
It just means I will continue not watching the establishment press and their garbage. They might as well be sponsoring legislation to protect Lucky Charms breakfast cereal or places like Pizza Hut or McDonalds or Burger King or Wendy’s for eating out at lunch or dinner for all I care, as I don’t bother with that sort of thing either.
I wonder if this includes joe doakes running a blog read by 3 people in podunk anywhere ?
If not....Congress shall make no law...
We need to have a database of registered journalists and their registered devices (PC, IPhone, Android, Laptop, Tablet etc...)
10 day waiting period to check credentials.
$25 a year fee for annual renewal.
Any mental health or felony issues crop up, devices must be forfeited.
Yes, but that was then, this is NOW!
Kinda depends upon who's ox is being gored.
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