Sunday, February 29, 2004
"WARNING: This newscast contains no nutritional value"
Just when we thought it was safe to start watching White House press conferences again -- as the intrepid protectors of the First Amendment were beginning to get ahead of White House spinmeisters (For a discussion of how administration officials manage to avoid answering uncomfortable press queries, click here), and when the press appeared to be finally shrugging off the not-so-veiled accusations of "treason!" by Fleischer and Ashcroft, the White House is getting ready to launch its own answer to the likes of CNN and C-SPAN: the Digital Video and Imagery Distribution System (DVIDS), which promises to take that pesky ol' "freedom" out of "freedom of the press."
If the press is increasingly kept from news stories out of Iraq by a hostile military -- to the extent that the only news that is allowed to emerge from that beleagured country is the "official party line," courtesy of the taxpayer-funded DVIDS —- how, then, can we be certain what is really happening over there? The simple answer is: we can't.
If the US government 1) controls independent access to the news, and 2) offers its own proprietary and exclusive coverage, free from any such control -- bought and paid for by (among others) the very news outlets against whom they will be competing -- is there a future for any free press in the US?
This is the Administration's version of "Radio Free America," and I, for one, am offended!
"All Bush, all the time?" Not with my Bill of Rights, Bubba!
If the press is increasingly kept from news stories out of Iraq by a hostile military -- to the extent that the only news that is allowed to emerge from that beleagured country is the "official party line," courtesy of the taxpayer-funded DVIDS —- how, then, can we be certain what is really happening over there? The simple answer is: we can't.
If the US government 1) controls independent access to the news, and 2) offers its own proprietary and exclusive coverage, free from any such control -- bought and paid for by (among others) the very news outlets against whom they will be competing -- is there a future for any free press in the US?
This is the Administration's version of "Radio Free America," and I, for one, am offended!
"All Bush, all the time?" Not with my Bill of Rights, Bubba!
