When the US government began its harsh crackdown on WikiLeaks, mainstream journalists and media organizations in the US did not condemn it as much as they should, partly I believe because they were resentful that WikiLeaks had exposed their own failings by exposing wrongdoing that they should have uncovered if they were doing their job. At that time, some of us warned that what the US government was doing to WikiLeaks, if unchecked, would eventually be turned against the mainstream media as well.
Sure enough, as Trevor Timm writes, it is now dawning on the media that the attacks by the Obama administration’s war on whistleblowers and the journalists to whom they give information, such as data requests without a warrant, equating journalists and reporting to spies and espionage, and using “conspiracy to commit espionage” charges against them, are merely extensions of its war on WikiLeaks.
People never seem to realize that it is never a good idea to support bad policies by a government simply because they are being used against people you dislike. Eventually they will end up being used against you too.
“Eventually, they will end up being used against you too.”
It’s amazing how many people don’t get this
Yep. The press bent over and refused to call torture “torture” (preferring “enhanced interrogation”) and assassination “assassination” (preferring “targeted strikes”) and now that they’ve shown they’re weak and easily pushed around -- they’re getting pushed around. Shocking. Just shocking.
The clowns in the media went along with it because they believed the US government’s hypocrisy would apply to them. (“It’s only wrong when they do it.”) Those “journalists” never thought they would become the they.
To their owners, lapdogs are still dogs. The owners will have no compunction about putting the dog down if it nips at the owner’s heels.
Fear.
People like Trevor Timm are the only real journalists this world has; they aren’t compromised by fear. All the snivelling journalists that fail to align themselves with truth are culpable; it’s not sufficient that they get an “I told you so” when abuses of power are directed at them. They’re the ones responsible for the abuses of power.
Power will always break its own rules. It does not regulate itself. By definition, power is a hijack of decency. It exists to be abused. To pretend that the State v Truth is a “He said, She said” situation is obtuse. And yet that is the reality of these snivelling cowards and sycophants in the MSM. State v Truth and they’re all confused about who is in the right?
It’s fear. They feared something other than fear, and those who create fear for that reason took advantage of their exploitable fearing state. They’re snivelling vermin who aren’t worth the oxygen they breathe. If they cannot do their job, they need to get out of the newsroom and let someone who isn’t afraid tell the truth (for a change).
The same thing seems to be happening with ag gag laws and legally defining environmental and animal rights protesters as “terrorists.” Fortunately, the resistance is large and growing even if the implications of these laws are slow to dawn on many, including many in the media who should know better.