Barack Obama and Press Freedom: Where Is The Promised Change?
Posted: Sunday, May 31, 2009
by Joel Kontinen
http://joelkontinen.blogspot.com/
Whatever happened to press freedom in the West? California attorney Orly Taitz, who was born in the former Soviet Union, says that there is actually less press freedom in the U.S.A. than in Russia.
Under President Vladimir Putin, the Russian government managed to silence practically all opposition to the Kremlin's rule. Some journalists who refused to toe the party line met an untimely end. For instance, Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in Moscow in suspicious circumstances. The government might have been behind the assassination.
In most countries, the mainstream press often leans left. It has agendas of its own, such as the promotion of the rights of sexual minorities and the ever increasing focus on global warming that is almost becoming a secular religion.
When running for president, Barack Obama promised change and more openness. However, after over 100 days in office, there is nothing really new under the sun. The press mostly continues to present a lopsided view of politics. For instance, when hundreds of thousands of Americans protested huge government bailouts in tea parties across the nation, the mainstream media were mostly silent. Some newspapers were more interested in Obama's new dog than in opposition to reckless government spending.
Time and Newsweek, for instance, are increasingly becoming party organs. Nowadays, even the Russian daily Pravda occasionally reports on some controversial political issues that the American mainstream media is afraid to address. At least Pravda is not averse to political satire, especially when it has to do with foreign rulers.
Sadly, it seems that the U.S. press is no longer the alert watchdog it once was. Gone are the days when investigative reporters had the courage to bring Watergate to light. Now being politically correct carries more weight than anything else.
The free world has often looked to America for guidance and inspiration, and not in vain. However, it seems that we might soon have to turn our gaze somewhere else - where the press can see through the haze of political correctness and report events without a liberal, humanistic bias.
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)The press is only an alert watchdog when attacking a Republican. They ignore Independents (John Anderson in 1980, Ron Paul last year - even though he was listed as a Republican) and give Democrats a pass. I have accepted this and we can laugh about media bias all we wish, yet look at the past couple of months: if an Independent or Republican member of the president's cabinet not paid their taxes, if an Independent or Republican president compared his bowling to those of the Special Olympics, run up the debt into the zillions, was Speaker of the House with a peculiar involvement in Memogate . . . they would be handed a blindfold and a cigarette.Sure, we have freedom of the press. As long as it suits the right people.Well done.Hey Mike I almost fell out of my chair laughing when I read "handed a blindfold and a cigarette"--so funny and yet well put!Thanks, Michael. Nice comment.Joel
What a well-written article with great points. I hope we will see a difference in how the press reacts and reports. Surprisingly, lately I have heard rumblings of criticisms of seemingly untouchable people and subjects that I have not seen before. I hope it continues and simply gets to the point of being fair, honest, and un-biased.Thanks, Steve. Perhaps someone should take a look at who really owns the press. Is it Saudi oil barons we are afraid of?
Sadly, Obama is just another politician. So many looked to him for "change," but there is and will be the same-o-same in a different package. The only real change is a mother-in-law living in the White House.Thanks. Ken. Nice comment. He would certainly not be the first politician to break most of his promises.Yes and another Kennedy, the dog. Big hello and a little humor for you, Robert
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