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posted by martyb on Friday November 23 2018, @07:35PM   Printer-friendly
from the disinvite dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @08:11PM (9 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @08:11PM (#765639)

    When were the standards high and how come you are only complaining about a left-wing source when breitbart has been used a bunch of times?

    I didn't see you going after THOSE stories. Speaking of hypocrisy in your other comment I have some bad news for you.

  • (Score: 2) by The Shire on Friday November 23 2018, @08:13PM (8 children)

    by The Shire (5824) on Friday November 23 2018, @08:13PM (#765641)

    Well, Anonymous Coward, when was the last time Brietbart was ever quoted as a source here? Got a link?

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Friday November 23 2018, @09:17PM (7 children)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday November 23 2018, @09:17PM (#765674) Journal

      Looks like October 14 [soylentnews.org] and August 7 [soylentnews.org].

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      • (Score: 2) by The Shire on Friday November 23 2018, @09:36PM (6 children)

        by The Shire (5824) on Friday November 23 2018, @09:36PM (#765688)

        Well that shouldn't be here either then. Two wrongs never make a right.

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @09:49PM (5 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @09:49PM (#765693)

          Well I've read a few breitbart articles, they are hard to stomach. So much vitriol.

          I don't doubt syracuse.com has a left leaning nature but that editorial (it was labeled as such) was hardly some media hit piece.

          I particularly liked this part

          To its credit, the White House Correspondents Association won't go along with the new rules. "For as long as there have been White House press conferences, White House reporters have asked follow-up questions. We fully expect this tradition will continue," it said it a statement.

          For the types around here that stick up for the freedom of speech there is surprisingly little support for the actual victims here. Ultimately ourselves if we let these things slide through.

          I suspect we have authoritarian shills (paid users who push agendas) and a surprisingly supportive base of nationalists. I guess it makes sense, most nationalism is born out of the fear of being taken over so people look to "their strong guy" and are led more by emotion than reason. If this statement annoyed you then all you have to do is pay attention to the lies Trump tells. Even if you like what he is doing overall you should still be getting pissed at some of the other things.

          I know, its hard to stay up to date, especially when your guy tells you that everything else is a bunch of lies. Yet we have hard data proving Trump lies almost by habit. That should make you angry and suspicious, but that gets misdirected towards other people. Just look at the caravan story, how much of an emergency is it now? How much money got wasted on it again?

          • (Score: 2) by takyon on Friday November 23 2018, @11:30PM (3 children)

            by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday November 23 2018, @11:30PM (#765728) Journal

            I suspect we have authoritarian shills (paid users who push agendas)

            I highly doubt that anyone is getting paid to post here. Not enough impact. I suspect there are very few, if any, shills at Slashdot either, since the site is less influential than it once was.

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            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 24 2018, @03:19PM (1 child)

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 24 2018, @03:19PM (#765886)

              oh it is

              its just that the market there is not as intellectual, wealthy, and intellectually wealthy.

              the masses are more receptive to advertising; they now are just sort of an in between placed above reddit and below wired. neither of which are shining lights of brillant journalism or news.

              reddit just has too much noise and wired has and always has been a shill that tries to promote itself in whatever the current generation of 20 something discretionary incomes seem to like to see on screen. go back to mondo 2000 and up through today and its always been a junk tech ezine.

              • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday November 24 2018, @03:38PM

                by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday November 24 2018, @03:38PM (#765889) Journal

                Reddit has noise, but specific subreddits do a good job of cutting through the noise and giving you what you want. Maybe you have to do a little work to find valuable content there, but it's there.

                Wired on the other hand has its own problems [salon.com], but it has nicely closed itself off from the outside world with a paywall. If we're lucky, it will wither and die like other magazines (print and online) have.

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                [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 26 2018, @09:32PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 26 2018, @09:32PM (#766631)

              My guess is SN is a high level target. Simple canned responses don't work that well here, but influencing the opinion of users here will cause a ripple effect. If I were running a shill-farm I would 100% get the best trolls on Slashot, Hacker News, and SoylentNews. Basically any site on lists like this one https://alternativeto.net/software/slashdot/ [alternativeto.net]

              It isn't hard to manage, just set up your shill with a news feed and have them jump into any discussion where they can push political angles. On top of that it was noted that shills targeted conservative leaning sites and SN definitely fits the bill there.

              I remain skeptical, and part of doing so means keeping in mind that there could be true shill accounts around here. Various narratives have been pushed and it is difficult to tell where exactly they come form. Maybe they are coming from true idiots, but possibly they are coming from organized groups trying to make the true idiots into their own useful idiots.

          • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @11:37PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @11:37PM (#765732)

            ...Most nationalism is born out of the fear of being taken over so people look to "their strong guy" and are led more by emotion than reason.

            Marxism in Our Time [wsws.org]:

            The elimination of competition by monopoly marks the beginning of the decay of capitalist society. Competition was the creative mainspring of capitalism and the historical justification of the capitalist. By the same token the elimination of competition marks the transformation of stockholders into social parasites. Competition had to have certain liberties, a liberal atmosphere, a regime of democracy, of commercial cosmopolitanism. Monopoly needs as authoritative a government as possible, tariff walls, “its own” sources of raw materials and arenas of marketing (colonies). The last word in the decay of monopolistic capital is fascism.