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Free press isn't free under White House's onerous rules (Editorial)
Muzzling the press is chapter one in the authoritarian ruler's playbook. By the Founders' design, the president of the United States is not a king or dictator. He doesn't control the media, or get to decide which reporters are assigned to cover him.
A free press isn't free if the government imposes rules on what reporters can ask and how they must ask it. That violates the First Amendment. Period.
Banning reporters from asking follow-up questions or challenging the president's statements, under threat of taking away their access to the White House, hobbles the watchdog function of the media. White House reporters will be looking over their shoulders, calibrating the consequences, every time they ask tough questions. Meanwhile, the president will be able to dodge accountability and lie to the American people with even more impunity.
(Score: 5, Informative) by The Shire on Friday November 23 2018, @08:02PM (29 children)
It amazes me that everyone has conveniently forgotten how the Obama administration went after FoxNews chief Washington correspondent James Rosen including subpoenaing his phone records. Or how they blocked access to FoxNews reporters when it was revealed that Kenneth Feinberg, then a Treasury Department official was allowing corporate execs who received massive bailouts to also get huge bonuses at the taxpayers expense.
Or the FOIA request email from Obama press secretary Josh Earnest to a Treasury Department spokesperson, saying, "We've demonstrated our willingness and ability to exclude Fox News from significant interviews…"
Or how Stephanie Cutter, White House communications director, went on CNN to denounce Fox as a "wing of the Republican Party" and say that the White House was going to stop treating them as a "news network."
Yea, Orange Man Bad and let's forget history when it's inconvenient.
Why is it the left gets away with so much hypocrisy?
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @08:12PM (9 children)
whataboutism. good for the soul.
(Score: 3, Troll) by The Shire on Friday November 23 2018, @08:16PM (3 children)
The term "whataboutism" is just an invented word to cover for hypocrisy. The past means something, you can't just dismiss it out of hand.
If you want to hold someone to a standard then you damn well better hold yourself to that standard as an example.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @08:27PM (1 child)
No, whataboutism is a real thing. In this case you are not being a hypocrite because it is good to remind people that this bullshit isn't a partisan issue although you are totally trying to turn it into one.
However your title "Nothing compared to what Obama did" is complete bullshit and comparing Obama/Trump and CNN/Fox is pretty disingenuous to anyone paying even the slightest bit of attention to the actual actions of the various parties.
If you don't want to be dismissed as a partisan hack then next time lay some criticism on Trump while you add on your other points. I doubt you would do that though, your tone is incredibly defensive and obviously biased.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Saturday November 24 2018, @06:14PM
"Nothing compared to what Obama did"
Since Obama never actually banned anyone I guess it's true.
(Score: 2, Touché) by RS3 on Friday November 23 2018, @09:50PM
You're correct, but more importantly the term "whataboutism" is yet another tiresome broad-brush used by smug arrogant know-it-alls who are always trying to win a war which only exists in their imagination. It's the new cool.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @08:18PM (2 children)
whataboutismhypocrisy. good for the soul.I still have popcorn left from yesterday
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Saturday November 24 2018, @06:18PM (1 child)
The hypocrisy is freaking the hell out when Obama merely contemplated banning a reporter (but decided against).
And then defending Trump when he actually bans a reporter.
(Score: 1) by ChrisMaple on Monday November 26 2018, @12:17AM
(Score: 3, Touché) by Captival on Friday November 23 2018, @09:07PM (1 child)
Oh no. A Liberal invoked the magical words. Now we can't discuss how insanely hypocritical they are. Darn it! He wins again.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @09:33PM
Nope, the whataboutism term is basically a challenge to stay on topic. If you want to discuss the actions of Obama then don't frame it as a defensive "but she did it firrrst" and more of a "well, then was it ok when Obama did XYZ?" The two approaches generate much different responses.
Discuss away, but start by at least addressing the actual article at hand.
(Score: 4, Touché) by rigrig on Friday November 23 2018, @08:14PM
Also, the Saudis got caught murdering a journalist, so the current US administration is actually doing pretty good!
No one remembers the singer.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @08:28PM (3 children)
The big difference..
https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/tv/fox/ [politifact.com]
Pants on Fire, false and mostly False statements:
9+29+21 = 50 %
https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/tv/cnn/ [politifact.com]
Pants on Fire, false and mostly False statements
4 +14 +9 = 27 %
And no, press freedom is not freedom to lie.
(Score: 1, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @09:26PM
Actually press freedom is anything the press want to write. If it falls under libel or slander then the press can be sued.
You are correct though, there is a massive difference in the quality of news reporting here which definitely makes the comparisons not quite equal.
I'm glad these things are happening and being talked about, our society needs to have these conflicts in the system in order to figure out how to handle them. I think it is pretty unanimous around here that censoring actions are bad.
My question is: will the US right wing stand by their valuation of freedom when it is Trump (jackass of indefensible jackasses) doing it right now?
Do the right thing everyone and when the "other side" goes all totalitarian you will have the high road to fight injustice.
Simply pointing out that all political parties have bad shit is not helpful and emotionally misdirects outrage. It is on-point whataboutism, which isn't really whataboutism at all. Whataboutism is when someone brings up something hardly related to the point at hand, like unconnected criminal behavior by a disliked political opponent, in order to steer the conversation on to another path.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by deimtee on Saturday November 24 2018, @02:08AM
So, 50% and 73% correct respectively. I have a hard time believing any commercial news organization has standards that high. Politifact included.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by DeVilla on Saturday November 24 2018, @09:43PM
Isn't Politifact the site that said "If you like your doctor/insurance you can keep your doctor." was pretty much true in 2008-ish only to eventually back-pedal and until it became "pant's on fire" false by 2013, while not taking down or updating the 2008 article still calling it true?
I'm afraid I don't buy someone throwing around numbers from Poiltifact as though they were some kind of objective truth.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @08:38PM (2 children)
Obama was to the right of Nixon. The left does not exist in the United States.
Your question should be, "Why does the less extreme right get away with so much hipocracy?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @09:37PM (1 child)
"Obama was to the right of Nixon"
That is insane. Like orders of magnitude. It is a generational difference in society between those two which might have you confused, the advent of the "turrist!" insanity virus really did a totalitarian number on the US.
The left does exist, just not quite that well in the DNC and certainly not the corporate criminals of the GOP, but it is there. Go away with your "all sides the same give up now!@!" routine.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Friday November 23 2018, @10:35PM
Actually, GP isn't all that crazy. The right of the 1960's has splintered, been diluted, but at the same time, moved a little further right. The left of the 1960's has moved very far right of their old positions. Today, the "left" in the US is more authoritarian than the right is.
You can search for terms like "political compass" and "political spectrum", but this page seems to address the issue well enough: http://factmyth.com/the-left-right-political-spectrum-explained/ [factmyth.com]
Americans in general would do well to take one (or more) of the tests, to determine where they really stand. Many of us will be really surprised to learn where they really are on each of the axis. Left and right is just far too simplistic to be useful.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Friday November 23 2018, @08:44PM (7 children)
Every president before Trump, including Obama and even Nixon, was much politer, and, I daresay, genuinely more respectful of the press. Trump is the outlier here.
Trump has shrugged off the murder of Khashoggi, and he tried to use blatantly doctored footage as reason to kick Acosta out. That we need a certain level of "decorum" and civilized behavior at a press briefing-- you know, no chucking your shoes at the President of the United States-- should go without saying. But somehow, the Trump administration thinks it needs to be said. Just another sad sign of how low this administration has dragged everything.
What's next, Trump brings a poodle to the press briefing and sends it forth to piddle on reporters' pant legs? Even Trump would never stoop that low? Or... would he?
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @09:20PM (5 children)
Two way street.
Muslim brotherhood propagandist.
Re-encoded != doctored
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @09:43PM (3 children)
Which codec were they using? Is that the same codec they used to remaster Star Wars so that Greedo shot first?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @10:08PM (2 children)
Haha, re-encoded with a codec problem. Bullshit jargon that might make a less knowledgeable person go "yaaa, it was a codec thing not a deliberate attempt at #fakenews! Damn liberals at it again!" Such a bad editing job too, I guess they realized actually modifying the footage would be pretty to spot with all the other news stations recording.
I mean really, defending fake news as an innocent mistake, or with accusations of fake news? Just astounding.
This is where we're at. Trump actually pushes doctored footage, true blue fake news, and yet the spin is still trying to sell it as "no law saying he has to take questions!" l o l i wish
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday November 23 2018, @10:49PM (1 child)
This is the new normal. And all the RWNJs on this site love it, though they haven't got the balls--it's ALWAYS balls--to say it.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 26 2018, @09:22PM
I saw a truck driving in front of me at night with some light swinging around underneath. I quickly realized someone made a lit up version of those truck balls and I then immediately thought that VLM and TMB must be road tripping.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday November 27 2018, @02:45AM
Correct:
http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-ugly-terror-truth-about-jamal.html [blogspot.com]
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 24 2018, @06:29PM
the propagandist pieces of human shit that call themselves reporters and ask contrived, dishonest questions should be grateful i'm not the president. i'd be trying them for sedition.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @09:50PM
Yeah, this is how the White House Press Pool has always operated. The reporters softball things or lose access, and since you can't be a good DC political reporter without White House access, they press has always pussyfooted around, regardless of party in power. Sad that it took Trump Derangement Syndrome to get these dipshits to actually push for a change, but pretending this is different in any way other than trappings around the edges is just sad.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @10:21PM
Troll? I'll fix that one. Maybe your post is a little whataboutist - but it's not troll material. Some snowflake just got offended at the truth.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Saturday November 24 2018, @06:11PM
It amazes me that everyone has conveniently forgotten how the Obama administration
Obama admin DID NOT block Fox reporters.