Pulling the Plug

“In old days men had the rack. Now they have the press. That is an improvement certainly. But still it is very bad, and wrong, and demoralizing. Somebody -- was it [Edmund] Burke? -- called journalism the fourth estate. That was true at the time, no doubt. But at the present moment it is the only estate. It has eaten up the other three . . . We are dominated by journalism.”

That was written in the 19th century by Oscar Wilde. We have been witnessing the decline of the mainstream media for quite a while now. Well, I have two stories from two different continents that both suggest a fatal demise for something that Thomas Jefferson said, “Our first object should therefore be, to leave open to him all the avenues to truth. The most effectual hitherto found, is the freedom of the press.”

Scene one, Venezuela. Setting, the whole country. Speaker, Socialist President Hugo Chavez.
Today the government of Venezuela began shutting down 34 radio stations across their country. They could perhaps close as many as 240 by the time they’re finished. Chavez’s Attorney General also proposed a new law that would create a category of ‘media crime,’ which would punish anyone in print or on the air that states opinion rather than fact. The president, Hugo Chavez, defended the initial radio closures, ridiculously calling them part of the government's effort to democratize the airwaves.

"We haven't closed any radio stations, we've applied the law," Chavez said on state television. "We've recovered a bunch of stations that were outside the law, that now belong to the people and not the bourgeoisie."

Read the full article here, http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN0146551720090801?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

Scene two, the United States. Setting, Aspen Institute's McCloskey Speaker Series, Aspen, Colorado. The speaker in question, Dan Rather.

In a stunning speech of circular logic, and eerily echoing President Chavez, Rather said both, “A democracy and free people cannot thrive without a fiercely independent press,” and then suggested that President Obama establish a commission on public media and independent reporting. He called for media reform to be an immediate national priority.

Read the full article here,
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20090729/NEWS/907289967/1058

The things Rather got correct were that media should be able, “to tell the truth without fear or favor,” and “present news as straight as you possibly can.”

With the fear of Media Matters and the Fairness Doctrine ever looming over the horizon, I really do not think we want to give the government a bigger toe-hold that the FCC already has in the media. I do think that news media should be held accountable for presenting the news without bias, but that should be in the peoples’ hands, not the governments’.

We already have President Obama on the record as saying, "I've got one television station that is entirely devoted to attacking my administration...That's a pretty big megaphone. You'd be hard pressed if you watched the entire day to find a positive story about me on that front," Does he really need a media czar to control speech?

As followers of Christ, we should continue to watch these stories with the knowledge that as the days continue to shorten, we will be under continued pressure to be silenced as well. When the domino starts to fall, other dominoes fall along with it. Our job is to focus people on the truths of all subject matters, and how they pertain to God’s ways. Regardless of the difficulties or attempts to be silenced.