Author Topic: Pressure has killed our free press  (Read 322 times)

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rangerrebew

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Pressure has killed our free press
« on: March 11, 2014, 05:25:15 pm »
Pressure Has Killed Our Free Press

Posted By Frank Camp on Mar 11, 2014 | 0 Comments
Sharyl Attkisson    



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“When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure.” – Peter Marshall

What defines a free press? Many, if asked that question, would say that a free press is one which operates under its own control, a journalistic community which has no political affiliation. Another possibility is that a free press is one without encumbrances, one that has no master, one that does not cater to one side, but only seeks to know the truth. I suppose those are all correct in a sense, but what else? What else defines a free press? I would argue that a free press should be impervious to pressure placed on it from Senators, Presidents, or from within its own ranks.

Pressure can be as deadly to the truth as outright tyrannical control. Pressure can cause a non-partisan journalist to bend to the will of their biased peers. Pressure can change the landscape of a free and independent press.

We have an imbalance in our press. On one hand, there is Fox News, and on the other is ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC. These liberal networks are entirely politically driven. They have a clear agenda, yet they pretend to be fair. These networks are no place for someone who seeks the truth. For example, Sharyl Attkisson, the one journalist who seemed to have any interest in reporting on the negative aspects of the Obama administration has decided to resign. She has resigned—so say inside sources—because of the extreme bias of her network.

According to Breitbart:

“Although Politico received no comment from Attkisson other than that the split was amicable, the left-wing outlet is reporting that Attkisson left due to the network’s ‘liberal bias.’ This split is ahead of her contract. ‘She increasingly felt like her work was no longer supported and that it was a struggle to get her packages on television.’”
   



For the last year and a half, Attkisson has focused strongly on the Benghazi controversy, digging as deeply as she could into the twisted tale told by the administration. She apparently dug too deep at one point, as it was reported that her computer had been hacked. Her dedication to uncovering the truth led to some animosity from the network, and her liberal peers. Given that CBS has ties to the Obama administration (Obama’s National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes is the brother of the president of CBS news, David Rhodes), it’s not surprising that she felt pressure to either conform, or get out.

This is the systemic problem in our modern day “free press.” Aside from a few honest individuals, the majority of journalists are completely agenda-driven. These agenda-driven journalists have no will to investigate corruption if it comes from within their own Party. That behavior is frightening, to say the least. That behavior is negligent. Journalists who fail to investigate the corruption of the Obama administration, even when they know it exists, have forsaken their first duty as members if the press. In fact, they are no longer a press at all. They are a propaganda wing of the Democrat Party.

What’s worse, the few good, honest journalists working in the mainstream media are being driven out because of the pressure. One bad apple spoils the bunch. Well, a barrel of bad apples spoils the only good one left.

When no one is left to investigate the corrupt, we lose. When we have no one left on the inside of the machine, we lose. Sharyl Attkissonn is one of many victims in the press who tried to fight, and were assassinated by their peers.

Pressure has killed our free press.

Read more at http://lastresistance.com/5019/pressure-killed-free-press/#7qlmJVD4fEyXWumg.99

Offline Chieftain

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Re: Pressure has killed our free press
« Reply #1 on: March 11, 2014, 06:09:38 pm »
We live in the age where it is hip to be famous for being famous.  Fame for the sake of fame is very popular, even infamy for the sake of infamy...ala Beiber and Company, or Kim with her big ass and a sex tape.

This is not journalism.  This is live television that has to constantly have something to talk about, and the glitter substitutes nicely for the breaks in between the gore.


Offline Bigun

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Re: Pressure has killed our free press
« Reply #2 on: March 11, 2014, 06:16:35 pm »
One night, probably in 1880, John Swinton, then the preeminent New York journalist, was the guest of honour at a banquet given him by the leaders of his craft. Someone who knew neither the press nor Swinton offered a toast to the independent press. Swinton outraged his colleagues by replying:

"There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it.
There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone.

"The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread.
You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press?
We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."



Source: Labor's Untold Story, by Richard O. Boyer and Herbert M. Morais, published by United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, NY, 1955/1979.
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
- J. R. R. Tolkien