Freedom of the Press

[woodchip]

I know some of you are not going to like this, but it appears we are evermore approaching banana republic status:

"According to Reporters Without Borders, America dropped 13 spots on the World Press Freedom Index 2014, designed to rank 180 countries in terms of the freedoms journalists enjoy and the regulations placed on them by government authorities.

The Index, published Feb. 11, shows that America now ranks number 46, below countries like South Africa and France. The Index has been published annually since 2002, but the 2014 ranking for America marks one of the most significant declines ever reported.

According to Christophe Deloire, the Reporters Without Borders Secretary General, the World Freedom Index is based on seven criteria: the level of abuses, the extent of pluralism, media independence, the environment and self-censorship, the legislative framework, transparency and infrastructure.

Investigative journalist James Risen believes the Index rightly shows the drop in American journalists’ freedoms due to crackdowns on reporters and whistleblowers and the efforts of the Obama administration and the National Security Agency to limit the amount of information America has concerning the “War on Terror” and other subjects."

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism ... gn=foxnews

Some of have been pooh poohing the idea of the national media being a rah rah organ for the Democratic Party. Perhaps now you see the reason why. While you may dislike Fox News, you should be grateful that there is at least one source that is critical of what is going on.

[Spidey]

Well, at least we scored better than Russia...

[callmeslick]

um, Fox News is a prime example wherein the press has lost independance, every bit as much so as those 'liberal' outlets. And to cite 'Brietbart', a poster-child for bias, and lack of openmindedness, borders on hilarious.

[woodchip]

um, Fox News is a prime example wherein the press has lost independance, every bit as much so as those 'liberal' outlets. And to cite 'Brietbart', a poster-child for bias, and lack of openmindedness, borders on hilarious.

Do try to click on the link in the article before saying Breitbart is a reason to ignore the OP.

http://rsf.org/index2014/en-index2014.php

Or perhaps you approve the US being 46th in freedom of the press when we should be first? Sorry, but that is not hilarious.

[vision]

The term banana republic is misplaced, but I agree the major news networks are godawful. All the stories are comprised of advertisements and propaganda.

[callmeslick]

what you assume, is that 'freedom of the press' is limited only by those you disagree with(by the words you wrote above), or by governmental control. No, and this and other reports note, it comes from a narrowing of acceptable outlets and supression of independant journalism by both government and other power players. In the US, those would be corporate elites that have turned major news outlets into something of a joke. Also, by ideologues who squelch independant thought. As I've often stated, there is still a lot of good journalism out there, but one has to dig harder for it all the time, and double check virtually EVERYTHING.

edit--this was a response to Woody, not vision