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Dems Unveil Bill To Protect Journalists. The So-Called Threat Is Stupid.
Townhall ^ | 3/13/2019 | Beth Baumann

Posted on 03/13/2019 3:25:07 AM PDT by BadLands59

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To: a fool in paradise

Then there are these recent comments from Lara Logan:

freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3730938/post


21 posted on 03/13/2019 4:56:05 AM PDT by OttawaFreeper ("The Gardens was founded by men-sportsmen-who fought for their country" Conn Smythe, 1966)
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To: BadLands59

What about a bill to protect us from loud mouthed, obnoxious democrats?


22 posted on 03/13/2019 5:32:37 AM PDT by richardtavor
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To: a fool in paradise

Bullstalin. Obama locked up filmmakers he disapproved of and spied on a journalist’s computer.


We still don’t know the full extent of the kenyan’s spying on journalists. Sheryl Attkisson was on Hannity a while back talking about her case. She still doesn’t know exactly what happened to her, exactly who assaulted her, etc. Scary stuff.


23 posted on 03/13/2019 5:35:31 AM PDT by lodi90
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To: BadLands59

So, they want to make it illegal to whip up on a presstitute doing a Murphy job


24 posted on 03/13/2019 5:35:43 AM PDT by bert ( (KE. N.P. N.C. +12) Honduras must be invaded to protect America from invasion)
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To: BadLands59

A journalist gets in a fight at a bar. Before he gets clocked, he yells, “I’m a journalist!” Will this law give him special protection? Will assaulting a journalist be worse than assaulting a non-journalist? Will “journalist crime” be an aggravating factor, like “hate crime?”


25 posted on 03/13/2019 5:47:31 AM PDT by Pearls Before Swine ( "It's always a party when you're eating the seed corn.")
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To: BadLands59

Joun-O-Lists are going to become a supremely privileged Super Class if the Dems ever get hold of both Houses and POTUS again.

I am as sure of that as I am they are going to expand SCOTUS and pack it with Leftists.


26 posted on 03/13/2019 5:59:44 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Aevery_Freeman

This is to prevent clymers and ratherbiaseds from getting gutpunched by DNC officials at the next Democrat Convention.


27 posted on 03/13/2019 6:05:52 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Denounce DUAC - The Democrats Un-American Activists Committee)
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To: BadLands59

If Republicans were smart (which I know they’re not, of course), they’d load this up with poison pills like provisions making it easier for people to sue journalists for false and/or malicious reporting (”since it makes it easier for people to use legal routes instead of violence”), and the like.

Make it so toxic the Dems will run from it.


28 posted on 03/13/2019 6:26:11 AM PDT by Yashcheritsiy (I'd rather have one king 3000 miles away that 3000 kings one mile away)
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To: BadLands59
“A healthy democracy depends on a free press unencumbered by threats of"... loss of advertising revenue.
True fact.
29 posted on 03/13/2019 6:28:52 AM PDT by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat/RINO Party!)
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The MSM is the Country’s greatest threat along with the Democrat Thug Party.


30 posted on 03/13/2019 7:01:17 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: BadLands59

I’d almost like to see this bill passed, so long as it only specified actual violence be committed against a journalist, and not vacuous threats via twitter, etc.

Then send a hundred conservative journalists into liberal conclaves around the country and let them ask serious questions. About half of them would be beaten senseless, I suspect, but could then hire the Covington lawyer, Wood, and sue them into oblivion.

Of course, the real reason the Dems want a bill like this isn’t to protect against real violence; it’s to shut down free speech. Criticize a journalist, a la Trump, and you’ll be in violation.


31 posted on 03/13/2019 8:08:33 AM PDT by Norseman (Defund the Left....completely!)
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To: BadLands59

These are stupid laws which merely needlessly expand federal court calendars.

Assaulting someone, anyone is a crime on the books in any state. “Journalists” nor anyone else needs a special law to prosecute someone for assaulting ANYONE.

As for “intimidation”, a “free press” has a right to “print” whatever they want. HOWEVER, constitutionally that right provides NO right to any particular information, from anyone.

And, anyone NOT wanting certain information “reported” has a right to try to keep that information from being reported, by any otherwise legal means available.

Some means may seem “intimidating” to the “reporter”, but whether or not that is true needs to be left to, and tested in, the courts, not to some law that attempts to use a non-transparent term like “intimidation” as some sort of transparent legal term, which it is not. There too many ways in which “intimidation” is a subjective matter. With such a subjective term, the DOJ gets a non-transparent law in which “intimidation” becomes whatever the prosecutor says it is.

You see, the Dims want the DOJ prosecutors to have the flexibility to pretend that any form of PERSUASION is “intimidation”. Subjectively, any form of “persuasion” can become classed as “intimidation”, by the receiver, as soon they reject the persuasion offered.


32 posted on 03/13/2019 8:34:10 AM PDT by Wuli
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To: BadLands59

If the Press consisted of 95% Conservatives and / or Republicans, this Bill would never make it out of Committee.


33 posted on 03/13/2019 8:36:02 AM PDT by Kickass Conservative (THEY LIVE, and we're the only ones wearing the Sunglasses.)
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To: BadLands59

Oh look, another Protected Class of People who have more Rights than everyone else.


34 posted on 03/13/2019 8:36:57 AM PDT by Kickass Conservative (THEY LIVE, and we're the only ones wearing the Sunglasses.)
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To: BadLands59

We ALL know that someone at the FBI invited CNN along to raid Roger Stone’s house because he supports Trump. Why is no one in jail?

Why is no one on their side EVER charged with anything??


35 posted on 03/13/2019 8:41:06 AM PDT by The Toll
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To: Truth29

It may mean that the Clintons cannot murder anyone who displeases them.


36 posted on 03/13/2019 11:23:25 AM PDT by minnesota_bound (My sister said the only thing that did not was the clock. GE has spare parts)
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To: minnesota_bound

I may be wrong but I think I read somewhere that murder is already illegal.


37 posted on 03/13/2019 11:29:01 AM PDT by Reily
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To: BadLands59
No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States . . . [and]

No State shall . . . grant any Title of Nobility.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

IOW, the Congress has no authority to make journalists into nobility, or priests, having rights unavailable to the people generally.

Anyone can decide to be a journalist. Congress has no authority to decide who is not a journalist. The rights of journalists are rights of the people.

I realize that that goes against the McConnell v. FEC decision validating McCain-Feingold - but then, even Justice Kennedy voted against the FEC in that decision, which was 5-4 the wrong way because O’Connell decided it wrong.

And as Antonin Scalia pointed out, “the freedom . . . of the press” is not absolute freedom of the press but the freedom enjoyed by the press at the time the First Amendment was adopted. Freedom which was, and is, limited. Limited by, for example, laws against libel.

Democrats are proposing a law favoring the journalism establishment, because the journalism establishment is joined at the hip with the Democrat Party.


38 posted on 03/13/2019 1:01:41 PM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion (Socialism is cynicism directed towards society and - correspondingly - naivete towards government.)
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