Freedom Of The Press, Freedom From The Press.

One of our nation's greatest abuses, is freedom of the press. I am not saying we should take away the media freedom. Freedom of the press, does not give the media carte blanche, to do whatever it feels like doing. There is a point of responsibility to the citizenry, it serves. When the press becomes abusive to that citizenry, it fails to meet it's obligations, when it harasses, when it misrepresents, when it out and out lies, and when it becomes the Creator of news instead of the reporter of news. When news stories are made of the families of victims or perpetrators and those families want to be left alone the press must, back down and leave those persons alone. The American people do not have the right to know the misery of those affected by the scum. that is not a story. As I stated in an earlier post I don't think the public at large even needs to know the names of the infamous.

Report the facts. They do need to know what is happening in their neighborhoods, cities and states. Facts would include descriptions of the suspects. I don't however prescribe to grocery store tabloids reporting garbage. They are not the press and should not be considered so. No matter how many articles they carry to legitimize their press credentials, when they publish articles about Roswell and alien pregnancies they are trash and therefore shouldn't be able to report speculative perversions or irregularities of personalities, and would be liable to lawsuits as any other citizen tearing down the reputations of others, to the point of criminal negligence.

In our legal system, suspects of crimes are innocent until proven guilty, in the press they are guilty until proven innocent, and remain guilty to those who do not read the mouse type on page G-16 in the lower left hand corner of the page. When a person of interest is raked over the coals by the press and it is determined that he was innocent, the reporting media should print or air a retraction equivalent of the wrong information. For instance Headline on page 1 reads "Morris Murders Mumford" in 76 point bold script. When Morris is found innocent instead of a 1 column 1" article written in 6 point script on Page D-12. The retraction is written in 76 Point bold script as a headline on page 1. If the TV report comes on as the lead story of the 6 O'clock news guess where the retraction appears..... not at 11:28 PM but, again at 6 O'clock as the lead story. It is just and fair. In election years any news reports covering the candidates must show true unbiased stories reveling just the facts , Not "Journalistic" pandering to the media sweetheart. For every minute of coverage for a candidate a minute of coverage will be available for his opponent at a time slot equal to that of the other.

Take Away Their 15 Minutes Of Fame

One of the saddest commentaries on American Society is who we remember. John Wilkes Booth, I don't need to tell you was Lincoln's assassin. Lee Harvey Oswald, was John F. Kennedy's assassin. Strangely enough we even know their middle names..... Can anyone tell me General Custer's full name (George Armstrong Custer)? We remember people like Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, Ho Chi Minh, Jeffery Dalmer, John Wayne Gacey, Do the names Theodore Bundy, Charles Manson Ring a bell? But, let me ask a more poignant question.... Should they? Why do we dwell on the infamous? Perhaps we should ignore them. Obviously, we shouldn't ignore the deeds of evil, but, why do we need to know Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris ran amok at columbine high? Instead we should know that two distraught youths ran amok and maimed and murdered their class mates, and now are now doomed to eternal anonymity. History books should read Abraham Lincoln was shot at Ford's theatre by a southern sympathizer. Let the memory of John Wilkes Booth be forgotten, forever. The same should be true of any other murderer or truly evil person. We should not give them their 15 minutes of fame... That should be reserved for; Chelsey B. Sullenberger III (pilot of US Airways Flight 1549), William Rodriguez (World Trade Center Maintenance worker who saved 15 people on 9-11), William David "Dave" Sanders (died helping over 100 students escape from Columbine High School), Lance Corporal Joe C Paul (Died after placing himself between the enemy and his wounded comrades in Viet Nam), and Etc... Etc... Etc... on down to the Mother who lifts a car off of her baby. These are the people who deserve their 15 minutes of fame....
My solution The newspapers don't need to publish the names of the demons and monsters, who run amok through society, stealing, killing, raping and generally abusing society; It serves no purpose. Delete their names from memory, don't burn them into the collective conscientiousness of society. Erase their names from their tombstones, let the good people who are left behind in their families suffer in quiet pain and away from the limelight of the media vampires who will suck the blood from them and the victims of their relatives actions. Again it serves no purpose to give them their 15 minutes of fame. Perhaps by taking that away from them, others will not see the opportunity for infamy.