I'm afraid that Mrs. Clinton has exceed her shelf live.
Posted on 09/29/2011 10:34:54 AM PDT by yoe
Can the White House get away with transparently political attempts to silence the press?
The Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) new media policy (rightfully has journalists up in arms:)
The Department of Health and Human Services’ just-released media policy makes it official that staff members and reporters are forbidden to speak to each other without reporting to public information officers and supervisors. The rules have “formalized a creeping information-control mechanism that informally began during the Clinton Administration and was accelerated by the Bush and Obama administrations,” writes FDA Webview & FDA Review editor Jim Dickinson. “The U.S. now takes a large step toward joining other information-controlling countries like my native Australia, where government employees who talk with the news media without permission commit a federal crime. I came to the U.S. in 1974 to escape this oppression.”
Poynter goes on to print Dickinson's letter in full, where he describes HHS' new policy as a '‘Soviet-style power-grab." It's bad enough that America is devolving into an onerous regulatory state, but impeding those who report on federal agencies and the rules they make is inexcusable. It's hard to conjure a rationale for this that isn't wholly political, given the unending stream of unflattering reports about the impact of Obamacare as HHS struggles to implement it.
And the Obama administration has a disturbing track record of unjustifiable press restrictions. Things were (particularly bad) during the gulf oil spill:
Media outlets such as The New York Times, Columbia Journalism Review, and NPR have written damning reports of the government's unreasonable attempts to limit access to the spill. The New Orleans Times-Picayune was prohibited from flying a plane over the spill so a photographer could get pictures. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., was denied permission to take a boat out to the spill with reporters and examine the catastrophe affecting his state. The Associated Press sent a letter of protest with the White House over the arbitrary restrictions. A CBS camera crew was threatened with arrest for trying to report from a beach affected by the spill.
In response to these media restrictions, Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., introduced an amendment requiring that federal officials "allow free and open access to the media of oil spill clean up activity occurring on public lands or public shorelines, including the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill." Democrats, then still in control of Congress, wouldn't allow a vote on Broun's amendment. And while federal officials were busy squelching reports on the oil spill, the White House was sending a ("2012 rescue team")to Florida to try and deal with any political fallout that might hurt the president.
Between the new HHS rules and the gulf oil spill, the White House has twice imposed draconian press restrictions that are transparently designed to help the president's reelection effort. It's nice to see the editor of FDA Review speaking out against the latest media crackdown, but that's not enough. The national media spoke out strongly during the gulf oil spill, and this latest media policy deserves equally severe condemnation.
hmm...I wonder if this explains why the MSM seems to suddenly be turning on Barry like a pack of hungry jackals?
“I wonder if this explains why the MSM seems to suddenly be turning on Barry like a pack of hungry jackals?”
More likely they caught their master’s hand signals. They’ll be used to clear the road for Hillary. Once they’ve done that, they’ll circle around her and protect her from Fast and Furious.
We have got to get rid of more than just 0bama....
Obama is horrible but the real enemy is the “creeping regulatory state”
Correct me if I’m wrong but IIRC we Americans are guaranteed free speech, a free press and free assembly so if this is what they are mandating I suggest that these journalists wake up and start covering Fast and Furious and all of the other Obama scandals including trying to silence all of you in this manner.One of your papers should sue for constitutional violations.
The Democrats today are the party of tyranny. They lean the same way that Stalin and Mao did.
I'm afraid that Mrs. Clinton has exceed her shelf live.
ed
One of the communist goals for America was the taking over of one or both of the existing political parties.
They’ve done that with the democRats, in spades.
That is the primary reason that the Democratic party must be sterilized and all the commies in America too.
That’s right see my tagline. That is the prime directive.
Exposure is political death for communists.
But the problem is, they were VERY successful at demonizing McCarthy, and they paint any anti-communist in the same way.
Another factor is that most sheeples just don’t want to believe there are hardcore communists in the democrat party.
Alot of them are starting to get it. Their cries of McCarthyism are wearing thin and they hang on by a thread. Payback day is coming and we are going to deal it hard.
JMHO, part of the reason the media is beginning to turn on The 0 is simply that they’re beginning to realize that 1) Even working around the clock for the next year-and-a-bit, there simply won’t be enough Presidential pardons to cover everybody, and 2) The media isn’t all that far up on The 0’s Favorites List anyway.
I’ve got to think that we’re only a few months away from the start of a whole bunch of rats leaving that particular sinking ship, if not the country altogether.
If anybody’s dumb enough to take ‘em, good riddance.
We need to keep Gitmo open for these clowns.
Gitmo’s okay, except that I wouldn’t expect the military to have to lower themselves to serve as their guards....
We can just keep using Gitmo for the AlQ clown posse, until they all go through the Tribunal process. (Although I’d tell the media, ACLU et al to take a hike and turn THAT place into a good old-fashioned Red Line brig.)
I’d be more inclined to ask the French if we could borrow Devil’s Island for a bit, take our collection of scumbags there, drop ‘em off all by themselves and then blockade the joint. Drum tight, nobody and nothing in and nobody out....unless they happen to float by with a shark feedin’ on the refuse.
LOL I thought of you maggie ping me to the thread when it is made LOL
LOL! Thanks for the heads up.
Already on it ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2785629/posts
I like the way you think!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.