“Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” —Thomas Jefferson
“Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.” —Thomas Jefferson
A free press is so vital to our country that it is specifically guaranteed by our Constitution in the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble…” Even a law requiring a permit for peaceful public assembly, marches, or speech is unconstitutional, because such a law effectively reduces—that is, abridges—these freedoms.
All of these freedoms were guaranteed to us by our Founding Fathers because they knew that the only thing that can ultimately hold a government accountable is the people themselves. In fact, our Declaration of Independence makes it clear that the People are the ultimate authority, and the Government is not: “…Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” The beginning of this statement also makes it clear that governments are only just when they use their powers in accord with the consent of the governed; that without the consent of the governed, the government itself is unjust.
To be authentically able to hold the government accountable and to give or take away consent, the people must be objectively informed. A free press will perform this role. It is the watchdog of government. It enables the public consciousness to obtain the objective facts, history, and analysis required for informed opinions and decisions. If such a free press does not exist, it destroys the validity of the representative republic, which will then usually turn into a tyranny by the greatest economic and/or political powers.
Unfortunately, as of 2008, the United States had a free-press ranking no better than that of Ghana, South Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina. To understand our low ranking, see the following.
As the above shows, our free press has been effectively destroyed. The airwaves, which are owned by the public, have been given away by the government to a handful of corporations that have been allowed to portray to the public any view that these corporations care to—even in “news” programs—without fact-checking or accountability. The result has been a treasonous alliance between corporations and the government to pull the wool over the eyes of the public.
Happily, corporations benefit by being allowed to operate unregulated media cartels, to get tax cuts and taxpayer-paid-for subsidies, and to have the law accommodate both the corporations and their super-wealthy owners. The government benefits by being allowed to inundate the public with propaganda (using the media like a gigantic echo chamber to the public’s eyes and ears) and to operate unchecked by the power of a free press. Both forces use the power of the media. They manipulate and manage the public consciousness, manufacturing consent with extremely sophisticated and well-funded techniques. Under this engineered guise, nearly unmitigated corruption has been allowed to fester between the rich and the powerful. In essence, we have an oligarchy, a fox in charge of guarding the henhouse, the plundering of a voiceless majority.
While there are a few bastions of an authentically free press in the United States—most notably, Infowars (mass truth), Webster Tarpley (top analysis), Greg Palast (investigator), Noam Chomsky (academic), and The International Forecaster (financial newsletter)—all of which I highly recommend—they are simply overwhelmed by the mainstream media. This information near monopoly should not be underestimated. If you control the information, you control the decision. “Remember,” as Dick Cheney said, “success for a politician is 50 percent plus one: you don’t have to have everybody on board.” By stealthily controlling the information that most people receive, the mainstream media can dominate their political views, and through our democratic institutions, dominate the outcome of votes. Though the naked truth might surface elsewhere, the mainstream media can almost always safely ignore it, minimize it, or counteract it.
In effect, corporate and governmental powers have pithed the soul of our representative republic and hijacked our collective consciousness.