The Telegraph and something to think about.

The editors of The Telegraph in May of 2009 tell us that:

“The First Amendment of the U.S. constitution states that ‘Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.’ The Constitution does not address, directly or by implication, how to ‘report the news,’ with or without bias. – Editors”

Apparently this is their claim to decide just how and what they will pawn-off on the people of middle Georgia as news with a complete disregard for any concerns about journalistic integrity.

The interpretation of the above is up to the individual but we all know what the First Amendment says, it is clear:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

What it does not say is the “First Amendment” provides protection for organizations such as The Telegraph which promote the paper as a newspaper, i.e. – “middle Georgia’s newspaper” – and then use it for nefarious purposes.

There are no laws that we know of that protects the “press” if they participate in scams, flim-flams or cons. If anyone knows of such laws we would like to look at them.

In a concurring opinion in the case of the “Associated Press v. United States” Justice Frankfurter wrote:

“A free press is indispensable to the workings of our democratic society. The business of the press, and therefore the business of the Associated Press, is the promotion of truth regarding public matters by furnishing the basis for an understanding of them. Truth and understanding are not wares like peanuts or potatoes.”

On November 11, 1954 William Randolph Hearst is quoted in the New York Journal-American as saying:

“According to American principle and practice the public is the ruler of the State, and in order to rule rightly it should be informed correctly.”

The AP and The Telegraph have fell far short of this and is nothing but a disgrace to the people of middle Georgia, the state and this Great Nation. Their disregard for the “Truth and understanding” when reporting, or rather covering up for criminal acts of our government is despicable.

As John T. Flynn said in his book The Roosevelt Myth on page 292:

“And if these techniques are permitted to continue the Constitution will be destroyed and our system of government changed utterly without a vote of the people or any amendment to the constitution. Roosevelt by his various hit or miss experiments all designed to get power into his hands, prepared a perfect blueprint for some future dictator of the modern school to usurp without very much difficulty all the powers he needs to operate a first-class despotism in America.”

Of course Flynn was talking about Roosevelt and his complete disregard for the Constitution but he could not have gotten away with it without the aid of the press.

As we approach the coming election this is something to think about.

Have a nice day.