God Bless Judith Miller... or God I hope the country has changed when I get back in a month
The bullshit that has been piling up since George Bush took office has finally pushed me to the breaking point (I know I probably say this very often but this time I am really losing it). I don't know how much everyone followed the story about the leak of undercover CIA operative Valarie Plame's identity, and I don't have time for a full explanation, but basically Robert Novak released her identity as retribution for her husbands opinions on the situations overseas (as a result of this ridiculous act I will henceforth refer to Novak as "that scumbag"). An investigation has been started inquiring into who leaked this information to Novak (and also to reporters Matt Cooper and Judith Miller). Cooper and Miller were both threatened with jail time if they refused to turn over their anonymous sources, both refused. BUT, that scumbag was let off scott-free with no threats or punishments and he was the one who revealed the identity the other two were only investigating the event and never endangered this woman. The Supreme Court refused to hear the case and uphold the first amendment rights of these two reporters so they were in trouble. TIME magazine went over Cooper's head and released his private notes about the interviews but were unable to come up with the informants name (my parents are canceling our subscription to TIME as I type).
Today the decisions came down and Cooper at the last second revealed his source, saying that his source told him it was ok to reveal their identity due to the impending possibility of jail time. Miller stood strong on her position and about two hours ago was taken to jail for withholding information from the investigation. I must say... thank God for Judith Miller. This is bullshit, the Bush administration has been slowly chipping away at our Civil Liberties ever since 9/11 but now they have gone too far. The media sucks all of it has been deteriorating, newspaper, television news, and even magazines... as it is written coverage of current events by a few select reporters is just about the only source of good news anymore, and I fear for it. If reporters are forced to reveal anonymous sources then anonymous sources will cease to exist. Had the government been allowed to pull this bullshit in the 70s would Mark Felt have had the strength to take his story to the press or would he, Woodward, and Bernstein been in fear of the government throwing them in jail. Think about it, Watergate may never have been uncovered had this tyranny existed back then, and I fear that any such wrong doing by the Bush administration or any other administration to come will be free from public scrutiny due to fear by the media. We cannot stand for this or we are allowing corruption to take over our government completely in years to come.
The constitution has been trampled today and Americans haven't reacted in the slightest. Were I in the country in the next month I would be attempting to organize a resistance, and I hope someone will do it in my stead... write editorials flood the media with our opinions, you may not have much time to use the media as a tool of democracy for much longer so do it while you can. Write to your congressmen and women, be angry, we must do something. We must protect our civil liberties, I would like them to still exist when I am an adult.
Finally, I know not many people read my Livejournal, but I know a few of you do. Perhaps your LJs have stronger readerships than I do... I know Justin's has a huge base of frequent readers. I ask you few readers this favor, if you agree with my position in this post please write your own posts about this issue, we as this nation's youth have the ability to make a difference; and the more people who know about this problem the better. If you don't want to write your own but you agree send other to my Livejournal to read it, or copy my post into your journal. If you don't agree or simply don't want to spread the word I don't blame you or hold it against you, I just thought I would ask. Thanks for your time I know that was a long post... and a bit of a rant.
Today the decisions came down and Cooper at the last second revealed his source, saying that his source told him it was ok to reveal their identity due to the impending possibility of jail time. Miller stood strong on her position and about two hours ago was taken to jail for withholding information from the investigation. I must say... thank God for Judith Miller. This is bullshit, the Bush administration has been slowly chipping away at our Civil Liberties ever since 9/11 but now they have gone too far. The media sucks all of it has been deteriorating, newspaper, television news, and even magazines... as it is written coverage of current events by a few select reporters is just about the only source of good news anymore, and I fear for it. If reporters are forced to reveal anonymous sources then anonymous sources will cease to exist. Had the government been allowed to pull this bullshit in the 70s would Mark Felt have had the strength to take his story to the press or would he, Woodward, and Bernstein been in fear of the government throwing them in jail. Think about it, Watergate may never have been uncovered had this tyranny existed back then, and I fear that any such wrong doing by the Bush administration or any other administration to come will be free from public scrutiny due to fear by the media. We cannot stand for this or we are allowing corruption to take over our government completely in years to come.
The constitution has been trampled today and Americans haven't reacted in the slightest. Were I in the country in the next month I would be attempting to organize a resistance, and I hope someone will do it in my stead... write editorials flood the media with our opinions, you may not have much time to use the media as a tool of democracy for much longer so do it while you can. Write to your congressmen and women, be angry, we must do something. We must protect our civil liberties, I would like them to still exist when I am an adult.
Finally, I know not many people read my Livejournal, but I know a few of you do. Perhaps your LJs have stronger readerships than I do... I know Justin's has a huge base of frequent readers. I ask you few readers this favor, if you agree with my position in this post please write your own posts about this issue, we as this nation's youth have the ability to make a difference; and the more people who know about this problem the better. If you don't want to write your own but you agree send other to my Livejournal to read it, or copy my post into your journal. If you don't agree or simply don't want to spread the word I don't blame you or hold it against you, I just thought I would ask. Thanks for your time I know that was a long post... and a bit of a rant.