Freedom of Press
is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Do we actually have this freedom, or has it
been taken away? Are our newspapers,
etc. free to print the real news or are they being told what to print?
Investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson used to work for CBS News. She resigned
last month under some questionable circumstances. She was recently interviewed on “Media Buzz”
by Howard Kurtz, the host. She said that
the Obama administration has had a “chilling effect” on reporting and has
applied pressure on her bosses. “I
didn’t run into that same kind of sentiment (at CBS) as I did in the Obama
administration when I covered the Bush administration very aggressively.”
Attkisson continued, “It never
runs. Or it dies the death of a thousand
cuts, as some of us say. If it’s
something they don’t want, it will be changed and revised and shortened and
altered so much that it’s a shadow of its former self if it does air.”
While explaining that calls have
come from the White House under other administrations when they did not like a
particular story, Attkisson said the pressure coming from the White House under
the Obama administration is different.
“There is pressure coming to bear on journalists for just doing their
job in ways that have never come to bear before.”
Attkisson was investigating the
Fast and Furious scandal and the Benghazi terror attacks. She was one of the few reporters that were
not following the talking points put out by the administration. She resigned because of frustration over her
perceived liberal bias at CBS News.
Apparently, the federal government has had some control over what was printed for several administrations. Is the Obama administration more or less controlling than the Bush or the Clinton or even the Reagan administration? The bottom line is, if the government is controlling what is being printed, we have already lost our Freedom of Press.
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