ABC, Exemplar of a Media that Once Was
The Constitutional guaranty of freedom of speech is contained in the First Amendment and is but one of six guarantees spelled out in that amendment. The section relating to free speech is actually limited to 10 words, “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech.”
As with most rights, free speech has limitations and those limits go far beyond the old example of yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater when there is no fire, a very reasonable restriction.
However, it’s worth remembering that the First Amendment and, indeed, the Constitution itself relates to the government “abridging” free speech, also called censorship. The non-governmental private sector suffers from no comparable inhibitions when it comes to such abridgement although voluntary censorship is common. That becomes bias, for example, with the media.
If and when government censorship becomes so intertwined with media bias that they are indistinguishable, with a supposedly independent media acting as government surrogates, we then have a state-run media for all intents and purposes.
In large part, that is what America has deteriorated into today, and it’s far from a healthy situation in our former free democratic republic.
That is the precise situation on June 24th, 2009 with the extended inf0mercial being staged by ABC, an allegedly independent media outlet telecasting “news” from within the United States’ executive mansion, the White House, promoting a government plan for “health care reform” while denying any dissent or opposition.
What was that comment Obama made about “transparency?”
Adolph Hitler, Joe Stalin, or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad couldn’t be any more opaque and more blatant in the suppression of truth.
Forty Republican congressmen dispatched a letter of complaint to the network’s news president, David Westin, contending that today’s farcical abuse of media and governmental power is “providing in-kind free advertising for President Obama.”
The letter also stated, “The manner in which the news programming is being presented – at the White House with the President and First Lady and without opposition – is unprofessional and contrary to the journalistic code of ethics . . . This is not a Presidential news conference open to all news outlets. This is an exclusive arrangement from which the President and his viewpoint stand to gain.”
Westin’s response, basically: “Ethics, schmethics!” Put another way, Westin in effect said, “How dare you elected officials have the impudence to question the decision and motives of ABC News!
(He did not address the reason for the presence of Michelle Obama at this dictatorial circus. Hillary Clinton and Rosalyn Carter must be tutoring Lady Michelle in the nuances of overstepping bounds and in the pretense of presumptive power.)
Westin actually adopted the high road with his rejoinder: “Sadly, some . . . see every issue as material for a sort of political high theatre, to be used to gain votes . . . I would have thought that a subject as important as the health care received by the American people would rise above this sorry spectacle. Our citizens need and deserve more. . . . we are proud to work for a network and a company willing to devote valuable airtime to serious consideration of a subject so worthy:” http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/06/congressional-republicans-blast-abc-abc-fires-back.html
Sadly, to borrow Westin’s word, we are witnessing today the death throes of the American media.
ABC has surrendered its moral, ethical, and journalistic integrity which cannot be hidden behind grand words and phony indignation. That is one “sorry spectacle,” not any effort to seek a full and public debate and airing of a monumental issue. Another “sorry spectacle” is ABC’s complicity with government in abridging free and speech.
Is it any wonder that ABC and its network and print media cohorts in crime are slipping into the black void of irrelevance and ultimate extinction?
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