Posted on 08/06/2002 11:32:43 PM PDT by glorygirl
Posted: August 7, 2002 1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
America's founders, fearing the day would come when Congress would make laws restricting the free press, crafted the First Amendment to the Constitution as a special protection against such abuse.
They understood without a vibrant, independent watchdog, government would become too powerful, exceed its authority and the people would be deliberately kept in the dark about what Washington was doing.
That time has come – despite the founders' clear provisions designed to prevent such abuses.
Last week, in a secret meeting, the Standing Committee of Correspondents, an official institution of Congress funded by tax dollars, banned WorldNetDaily Washington Bureau Chief Paul Sperry from covering the Capitol.
It was the ultimate act of spiteful arrogance that followed 18 months of stalling and excuse-making by the committee, which has searched in vain for any legitimate reason to block WorldNetDaily from the accreditation process that would give the independent newssite unfettered access to the Capitol.
Until last week, the committee had simply refused to grant permanent accreditation to WorldNetDaily, but provided limited access through day passes. Now, even the day passes have been revoked.
According to the committee's chairman, William L. Roberts III, himself a journalist for Bloomberg News Service, there wasn't even a vote by the five-member board. There was no notice of the meeting. No hearing preceded it.
The latest reason for turning away WorldNetDaily from the Capitol? The attorney for the committee says the unprecedented action was meant as punishment for Sperry for allegedly making "factually inaccurate" statements at the appeals hearing last April.
Accusing Sperry of misleading the committee is the latest in a long list of excuses used to deny WND unfettered access to Congress.
First, WND was told the committee had no rules governing Internet-based media. The next objection was WorldNetDaily's association with the nonprofit Western Journalism Center, from which it was spun off three years ago. Then came erroneous charges that WND takes money from businessman Richard Mellon Scaife, whom the Clinton administration alleged directed a vast, right-wing media conspiracy. Then questions arose regarding WorldNetDaily's non-existent connections to Judicial Watch. In the end, the committee settled on an alleged shortage of "original content" on the newssite as a main basis for denying WND accreditation.
Nevertheless, through the entire fishing expedition, Paul Sperry was permitted access to the Capitol through the indignity and inconvenience of day passes. Last week, he was informed that he would no longer be welcome in the Capitol at all.
This is the same Paul Sperry, by the way, who not only was previously accredited to cover the Capitol but who, as the former Washington bureau chief of Investor's Business Daily, actually decided which other reporters from his news organization would be accredited by the committee.
Now, it should be clear to one and all that this committee is discriminating against WorldNetDaily because of its independent, muckraking reputation.
The committee, comprised by William L. Roberts III of Bloomberg Business News, Donna M. Smith of Reuters, Scott Shepard of Cox Newspapers, Jack Torry of the Columbus Dispatch and James Kuhnhenn of Knight Ridder, has managed to insulate itself from criticism and accountability. So it's time to go over their heads and make the Senate Rules Committee accountable for this egregious First Amendment violation.
It's not Sperry who is lying to these self-appointed press police. It's they who are lying to the American people and to themselves about their own inexcusable, un-American actions.
That's false. Read the link in Post #50.
Here's one laughable snippet, but there are many more.
Equally troubling, at the beginning of the week, the Iraqi force already in Jordan was sighted moving west, several groups having reached the sand dunes and wadis known as Abu Haffrah, about 80 km (50 miles) inside Jordanian territory.King Abdullah decided to take command of the Jordanian forces still chasing the Iraqis intruders. That is why he looked so worried and tired – as though he had not slept for nights – in his public appearances in Amman in the past week. He also appeared in combat fatigues.
It's bad enough that WND prints this crap, but it's unbelievable to me that anyone here would defend it, or, in your case, have a case of total denial.
Let me make absolutely sure I've got this straight. You think WND should sue FreeRepublic?
You may specify the punishment of your choice: anything but Castle Anthrax or the Comfy Chair.
No. He is lying.
Dog Gone, you are lying. Something you claim you don't like Debka doing.
The anti-Debka people obviously have agendas. They lie more than Debka.
I also know Jack Tory. While a lib, he's fair and takes his position as a journalist very seriously. I doubt that he would deny someone simply on who the reporter worked for.
I posted the proof. It's not my problem if you can't read.
It is a perfectly reasonable scenario.
I have no idea if it is true and neither do you.
They understood without a vibrant, independent watchdog, government would become too powerful, exceed its authority and the people would be deliberately kept in the dark about what Washington was doing.
And this is why porn is not protected under the first amendment. The first Amendment is to protect political speech, not decadent speech.
Ban porn, not the WND.
Clinton's Face Turned the Color of Raw Hamburger Meat ....
Source: BQ's view...With Radio America's Blanquita Cullum
Published: October 7, 1999; Author: Blanquita Cullum
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