Freedom of the Press?
More and more recently you’re seeing pushes by the Federal Government, notably coming from the Republican Party, to limit what can and cannot be reported by the press in the country. The current situation is a bill working its way through the Senate being pushed by Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Lindsay Graham (R-SC), and Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska). The bill, as written, would make it a crime to report on such things as the President’s penchant for wanting domestic phone calls wiretapped without a warrant. I really have to wonder what DeWine is thinking.
When contacted by the AP, DeWine’s aides said that the intention wasn’t to keep reporters from saying anything about such things, but the wording of the law says differently. The way it’s currently written, it makes no allowances for whether the information is classifed or not nor whether the target is the person who leaks it or the person who reports it. As written, it also makes it illegal to report on such things where the President (or his administration) is breaking the law in their pursuit of “justice.”
Looking back over the way that the Bush Administration has prosecuted the War on Terror with their viewpoint of ‘if you question what we’re doing, you’re helping the Terrorists,’ I’m frankly chilled. While I believe the War on Terror should be prosecuted (and often more stringently than it is), doing so to the detriment to basic freedoms outlined in the US Constitition (First Amendment–Freedom of the Press–remember that?) is reprehensible.
DeWine’s aides claim that this isn’t the intention of the Bill and that they’re willing to do a technical amendment to make sure the Press won’t be pursued under it. I have to question, however, how it even got out of their office without that being considered given the number of lawyers and lifetime bureaucrats that likely saw it before it started making the rounds. Far too much that has been pushed through by the Bush Administration as part of their War on Terror has been a direct assault on Civil Liberties (being able to requisition library records without the knowledge of the library user anyone?). Anytime someone tries to speak out on it, however, it becomes another round of ‘you want the Terrorists to win!’ And, honestly, I’m tired of it.
DeWine should remove his Bill until such a time as he can correct the language or, better yet, drop it and apologize for even putting it out there. Unfortunately, I don’t see this happening. Between the closing of the ranks the Republicans tend to do and their hubris when it comes to governmental policy, they have shown that they believe they don’t need to apologize for anything or reconsider their viewpoints.
People should not be afraid of their Government. Unfortunately, it appears that our Government feels differently.