I heard something on television this morning that I had to look up on the internet to make sure I'd heard right. I was confounded to find the following in Wired News' Furthermore Archive.
Stop the Press
Is 'freedom of the press', like the Geneva Convention, becoming a quaint anachronism? 1 in 3 American high school students believe the press should be more restricted, and even more say the government should approve newspaper stories before readers see them, a new survey says. 36% of the 112,000 students polled think that newspapers should have to get government approval before printing a story, while 51% believe papers should be able to publish freely, according to a First Amendment Rights Survey conducted by the University of Connecticut. The concept of a free press being essential to a free society appears to be eroding, and that, my fellow Americans, is very dangerous indeed.
-- Tony Long
It was the results of this University of Connecticut survey I had heard on TV. No freedom of the press in the USA? Can you imagine it? I never thought to hear myself say this, but what the he!! is wrong with today's youth???
I can't begin to envision the voluminous bureaucracy that would be spawned by that bit of legislation. And all the news programs and papers that would be forced to close up shop because of red tape, the hurdles of countless required mind-numbing processes, or simply government disapproval. How excrutiatingly long it would take the public to get 'news', likely filtered of any real value, because of the circuitous nature of bureaucracies. How large a bill the taxpayers would foot for this government-run censorship.
I guess this would have to include the internet news media as well. Can you imagine the government's idea of 'news you can use'? :-o Good thing that blogging came along. We'd have to rely on bloggers and private web sites completely then to get the real news.
What a fantastic job creation opportunity this would create though... "Welcome to the Bureau of Media Regulation. This 12-volume 24,000-page set spells out the topics, opinions, phrases, and particular journalists that we are not allowed to approve- memorize it! Memo from the top today: There will be no further approvals to air or publish GWB bloopers."
Old freedoms never die. They just get legislated away.
Stop the Press
Is 'freedom of the press', like the Geneva Convention, becoming a quaint anachronism? 1 in 3 American high school students believe the press should be more restricted, and even more say the government should approve newspaper stories before readers see them, a new survey says. 36% of the 112,000 students polled think that newspapers should have to get government approval before printing a story, while 51% believe papers should be able to publish freely, according to a First Amendment Rights Survey conducted by the University of Connecticut. The concept of a free press being essential to a free society appears to be eroding, and that, my fellow Americans, is very dangerous indeed.
-- Tony Long
It was the results of this University of Connecticut survey I had heard on TV. No freedom of the press in the USA? Can you imagine it? I never thought to hear myself say this, but what the he!! is wrong with today's youth???
I can't begin to envision the voluminous bureaucracy that would be spawned by that bit of legislation. And all the news programs and papers that would be forced to close up shop because of red tape, the hurdles of countless required mind-numbing processes, or simply government disapproval. How excrutiatingly long it would take the public to get 'news', likely filtered of any real value, because of the circuitous nature of bureaucracies. How large a bill the taxpayers would foot for this government-run censorship.
I guess this would have to include the internet news media as well. Can you imagine the government's idea of 'news you can use'? :-o Good thing that blogging came along. We'd have to rely on bloggers and private web sites completely then to get the real news.
What a fantastic job creation opportunity this would create though... "Welcome to the Bureau of Media Regulation. This 12-volume 24,000-page set spells out the topics, opinions, phrases, and particular journalists that we are not allowed to approve- memorize it! Memo from the top today: There will be no further approvals to air or publish GWB bloopers."
Old freedoms never die. They just get legislated away.
1 comment:
Check this out: Sunshine Sunday. Support freedom of the press!
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