So,
I read an article today from Reporters Without Borders about their Press Freedom Index for 2011 - 2012. No surprise but the United States dropped in ranking going from number 20 to number 47.
Damn you Occupy Wall Street!
Maybe they put too much importance on things like beating journalists with night-sticks.
"The equation is simple: the absence or suppression of civil liberties leads necessarily to the suppression of media freedom. Dictatorships fear and ban information, especially when it may undermine them."
Suppressing the blatant disregard for civil liberties is obviously a big part of the equation but I think there are a couple huge chunks that may have played roles in the plummet in the US ranking, with OWS acting as the catalyst to bring these things to the surface. The article is big picture taking in the entire world in one article but in the case of the United States, it's vital to include the changing face of "media" and who the spotlight is pointed at when Occupiers start chanting.
The fact that anyone and everyone can be a journalist (although cities are going to be much more strict with press credentials from now on - to keep the riff raff out, doncha know). When there were only 6 major media corporations controlling the release of information, it was safer to allow journalists near the action because it was easier to tell them which stories to cover and maintain control on what was eventually released to the public.
Similar to watching the Great and Powerful Oz do a "press release", only people who will go along to get along are allowed to participate with a camera. Anyone allowed to ask Obama questions has to sign a "Softballs Only" agreement. Before Obama declared himself a third world tyrant, anyone asking a question seeking real information would be banned from any further presidential "press releases", fired, black listed, and called names by the lapdogs still allowed to sit in the same room as Oz. Today, armed with NDAA, JSOC, and other "laws" repealing the Constitution, any journalist with the balls to ask Obama a question of any informational value will find themselves in Gitmo with electrodes connected to said balls with no legal means of getting released.
Ohhh, the Monica Lewinsky presidential media contract.
To get close to the prez, you have to suck His dick?
Your self-esteem has got to take a hit when you suck the dick of Goldman Sachs' little bitch.
The Great and Powerful Squeak?
Sounds about right.
In today's world though, anyone with a camera, smart phone, or blog is part of the media. The whole world is watching. It's impossible to control what goes on the Internet (although Obama is doing His part for the 1% and signed the ACTA Treaty - Yes, it's a direct violation of law for Obama to sign a treaty without Congressional approval but puppet dictators don't pay much attention to Congresses) so, at the moment, police are trying their best to restrict media from being too close when they start pepper spraying and tazing people for committing the crime of being alive.
Weird as it may seem with the bright colors and the voices in my head getting to say their piece, this blog is part of the media. The old media used to control the release of propaganda information and, as such, were able to really lead people around. Today, I (and many, many others) are able to talk about peace and freedom in a medium that can reach the entire planet.
Enemy combatant! Enemy combatant!
Smartass has been watching OZTV again. All Obama, all the time.
With the Internet, it's not only possible to show video of the police shooting people in the head with tear gas canisters because the 1% told them to do it, we can also discuss solutions outside the one party, one percent, solution.
This is obviously motivation to suppress freedom of press and freedom of speech and Freedom in general, especially when you couple it with the fact that the alternative media is pointing its cameras at the depraved actions of the 1% and the government officials that they have bought. The 1% owned the media and were quite happy to report on anything and everything from six inches of the dead body if it had no relation to them. Now that the cameras are pointed at the 1%, journalists have to be miles away from where the cops are running over people with their scooters.
Freedom of the Press was a great saying while the 1% owned the press resulting in the fact that there wasn't actually any freedom of the press. Now that the 1% are actually threatened with freedom of the press, their puppets in the United States government are coming down hard on anyone who dares speak or show the truth.
This brings us back to the quote from Reporters Without Borders but in the case of the United States, the dictatorship isn't held by the government, it's held by the 1% that own the government. It was so much easier for them before Occupy Wall Street and that's why the United States was mistakenly ranked at number 20. Now that the 1% are losing control of information and people are starting to look at them, they are reacting violently and the United States press freedom index ranking is going to continue to tank. Truth is the greatest threat to the 1% and their puppet government and must be suppressed at all costs (using tax payer money of course - don't want anything ruining this year's multi-billion dollar bonus).
