ABC, Exemplar of the Media that Once Was

ABC, Exemplar of the 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 . . .

(Read the rest at http://genelalor.com)