by
Gary DeMar
The First Amendment is a reporter’s ticket to say or write anything
as long as it’s not defamatory. Notice that the prohibition is directed
at Congress:
“Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press. . . .”
Congress is still in the picture in the Second Amendment:
“A well regulated Militia, being
necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to
keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed [by Congress].”
Congress is the national legislative body that cannot make laws that
prohibit “people to keep and bear arms” in the same way that it can’t
make laws that infringe on the freedom of speech and press. And yet,
there are government regulations, forms to fill out, background checks,
and a whole host of other legal add-ons to what the Second Amendment
specifically prohibits.
So why aren’t similar restrictions placed on the media when it comes
to their freedom to write and speak on political issues? Why do we find
so many media outlets getting behind government directives to limit the
freedom expressly stated in the Second Amendment but would find any
similar restriction deplorable if the government were to go after First
Amendment rights (unless it’s religion)?
I think it’s time that we call on Second Amendment defenders in
Congress to push for the regulation of news reporters and the devices
they use to report the news. We need a “task force” to look into
establishing some government regulations since most reporters today have
aligned themselves with the party in power. Even liberals are beginning
to notice:
“Earlier [last week] week, [Kirsten]
Powers acknowledged the discomfort that many statists feel when
confronted by conservative beliefs because their
dominance of the media
prevents them from being exposed to such thinking. [On January 25,
2013], Powers continued taking on the media saying that the White House
press corps is ‘juvenile and amateurish’ in how they cover Obama and
swoon over his every move.
“‘We need to hire grown-ups to cover the president,’ Powers said during the [January 25
th] edition of Fox News Channel’s ‘
Happening Now’ program. . . “
National Review
columnist John Fund lamented, particularly about the White House Press
Corps, ‘Part of the job, unfortunately, of a White House reporter now is
to report the White House’s point of view because you can’t get any other real news, and the problem is if you don’t provide
context. That is not being done in the White House. It’s one thing to
report what the president believes; another thing not to provide any
context.’”
I propose that before any story can be published, a reporter should
have to take a lie detector test to demonstrate that what’s being
described is the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Laptops,
tablets, and recording devices must be registered with the government to
make sure they are not being used improperly. There have been numerous
cases where video tape has been edited to put a negative slant on a
story.
Paperwork must be filed out on every story testifying that each side
of a story has been fairly represented. Competency tests need to be
conduct as well. Does a reporter have any mental illnesses? Are they
taking mind-altering prescription drugs that might affect their
reporting objectivity?
Obviously, I’m not being serious. It will never happen, and I
wouldn’t want it to happen. But some of the same arguments that are
being used that would limit the freedoms in the Second Amendment could
just as easily be applied to the First Amendment for similar pragmatic
reasons.
When a president is elected, he can start a war that results in the
deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. If controls on guns for
individual citizens are designed to stop mass killings, then a similar
argument can be made about a president’s policies. Powers continued with
this gem of a comment:
“The purpose of a journalist is to hold
people in power accountable. I know this is probably a surprise to some
journalists today, but that is actually what they’re supposed to be
doing.”
Today’s media are not doing their job. If they want to get behind
more gun control, then it’s about time that we push for some media
control.
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