Ranting again. Sorry. Last one and in February I will bring you light-hearted glimpses into our little family.
The First Amendment of the US Constitution provides for freedom of speech which protects journalists working in good faith to inform citizens about their governments process and actions. It also protects citizens' right to speak their mind. It is why these blog entries speaking out against the way the government is being run right now are possible without penalty against me. Artists' creations are protected as well; even if they are offensive. What I hadn't paid attention to until a few months ago and not truly contemplated until I read a biography of Thomas Jefferson recently was the basic reason the founders specified this freedom in the constitution. As citizens we cannot be in WashingtonDC as work is happening and we probably do not have a direct line to our representative to find out what is happening and where they stand. The press should act as nonpartisan eyes and ears for the citizens reporting what action is being taken. The press should be there representing the people asking questions to make government bodies, representatives, agencies accountable for their actions or inactions. The press is allowed to report what happens within the government even if it makes the government look bad.
So where is the press now? Why are the mainstream media in America regurgitating press releases to us without asking any questions? Where are the American media asking questions about important attacks on Americans and around the world today? Why have I been reading foreign press on a more regular basis? Because American press does not report things like why the CIA agents who were killed in Benghazi were there in the first place (lets just say 15,000 shoulder fired rocket launchers that the US government were quietly trying to pass to Libyan rebels went missing and were thought to be in Taliban control--- makes you want to get on a plane right now doesn't it?). The American press never tried to find out what other damage was done to Middle East operations during the raid of the Libya compound (classified information taken or left --literally--lying around the destroyed embassy including names of informants). American press was certainly not going to point out that the President and State Department "squirreled" the country about some protest over a video that had been released on Youtube 5 months before and continued in the lie for 2 and a half weeks before they said they might have been wrong (squirreling is distracting the public with some shiny object so they don't notice the real story). American press who laughed at presidential canidate Mitt Romney in October when he suggested Mali was becoming a hot bed of terrorist training and anti-American sentiment have still not put that fact out there that Mali is a hotbed of terrorist training. Had mainstream American media pushed and questioned and examined and investigated the Benghazi attack perhaps the government would have had to pay attention and would have gotten to the bottom of who the attackers were and where they came from thus finding them before the same people (not just the same group , but the actual individuals who perpetrated the embassy attack) would have not taken people hostage in Algeria killing many more.
American media has a duty to the country to pass on unbiased information so that American people can understand what is happening in their government, where their government fits in the world, and people can make informed decisions and vote with true facts in hand not just what the government tells us to believe. If I wanted government run media, I would move to North Korea or China. I want my media to question and dig and poke at the administration and find out if they even understand what is happening or if they could have predicted what happens with the intelligence they have or even if they read the intelligence reports they get. When the media does their job then it falls on the shoulders of the people to read the information, make an effort to understand it, and use the information to be active in government through calling representatives or at least having an informed opinion to vote with.
OK. I think I am done with ranting. Thank you for listening. Will be back later in the week with something a little more light-hearted ( though still no photos because I have not figured that problem out yet.). B
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