Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/11/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I have no idea what the specific conditions are in those other countries. But even given my total ignorance, I'll put the best of the U.S. media - and the freedom of the press in this country, up against that in, oh, say Latvia, any day of the week. I know it's fun to bash the U.S. - God knows there's a great deal of legitimate basis for bashing us. But this one is waaaaay of the mark. For what now seems like the 99th time - "freedom of the press" has to do with what the press can and can't publish. And in this country the press can publish any news it can find. Does the government try to hide things? Of course - this Administration in particular. But that isn't a legitimate measure of press freedom. The legitimate measure is what happens when the media gets a hold of those things the government doesn't want to know - at that point can it be stopped from making them public? And in the U.S., the answer is NO - unless the government can go to court and convince a judge that publication of the material in question poses an immanent threat to national security. And that is sooooo hard to do, that the government has only attempted - and failed - to do it in a tiny handful of cases in recent history. Now - is the U.S. Army of Occupation in Iraq interfering with Al-Jazeera's doing its legitimate work? I'm sure it is. But that is NOT a measure of U.S. freedom of the press; it is a measure of this Administration's perversion of what America has always wanted to stand for. ;-) B. D. - -----Original Message----- From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of Jacques Bilinski & Barbara Bradbury Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2003 3:46 PM To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us Subject: Re: [Leica] Freedom of the press? WAS (something else) > I would argue that the U.S. does have the most 'free' press in the > sense that there is NO government imposed prior censorship. Oh, I get it now. There is a large group of countries all tied for first place: USA, Timor, Iceland, Costa Rica.... Latvia, etc (but not France). :) - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html