“We now go to our reporter in the field, Andrew Saxon…”
Controversy erupted on Capitol Hill today as the Republican Congressman, John Smith, cast doubt on the constitutionality of the First Amendment in a short, impassioned speech:
“My fellow Congressmen! Have we not all suffered under the tyranny of a free press. Who here hasn’t been assaulted by these teeming hordes of eidetic hit-men? Well, my friends, those days may be coming to an end. Recently, upon reading that bit of paper marked “Constitution” in my office, I have learned that this so-called First Amendment isn’t included in the Constitution at all! They’ve been fooling us for decades, my friends, making us believe that we have to endure their tortuous questioning. Well, no more!”
The Speaker of the House, Congressman John Boehner, stood in silence, along with the rest of the House, before muttering a quick “Okay” and resuming normal business. When our news crew caught up with him later, here is what he had to say:
“This is an issue that needs further debate, but the question I have to ask you is, Why isn’t President Obama addressing this issue? The dubious constitutionality of the First Amendment is obviously an issue that the American people are really concerned about, but I don’t feel any concern coming from the White House. That bothers me and I’m sure that it bothers the American people.”
When we contacted that White House to ask for a response, this is what they had to say:
“The constitutionality of the First Amendment is not under question.”
Despite this statement from the White House, many grass-roots organisations are now voicing their concerns over the controversial status of the First Amendment. We spoke to Christian Becket, head of “Americans for Nice-Sounding Things”, who had this to say:
“This is a really serious problem, that we feel and we’re sure that the American people feel that the President really ought to address. At the moment we don’t even know if what we are saying right now is permissible under the Constitution of the United States. Frankly, the silence from the White House over this encapsulates the President’s rather aloof attitude towards matters of great concern for the American people.”
This is Andrew Saxon, MSM News…
“That’s some really interesting stuff, Christine, what do you think?”
“I think that the President has some tough questions to answer, Joe.”
“Alright, next up…”
And this is how a is narrative formed, yeppers or “look a squirrel!”
Meet Dana Bash, Andrew Breitbart’s New Best Friend
How many times does Breitfart have to be exposed as a fraud before he stops getting any coverage? Does CNN know how foolish they look?
H/T The People’s View
{SIGH}…sadly Caru you hit the nail square on the head!
Well done…but again {sigh}….I wouldn’t be surprised if someday some wingnut, did indeed question the 1st amendment.
Very well done Caru. I thought, at first, that your article was true. That’s how bad it’s gotten with the GOP/TP. Just when you think they couldn’t get any more bizarre, they do. I have no doubt that there are those in the GOP/TP that would like nothing better than to get rid of that pesky first amendment.
This quote by R.W. Emerson says it pretty well, concerning the first amendment:
“Democracy becomes a government of bullies, tempered by editors.”
KT, your mention of editors is a major problem in this “new media.” Many of the news editors have “taken early retirement” and with them went much of the “institutional knowledge” of what is news only to be replaced with bean counters, entertainers, rating watchers and lawyers. Gone are the days of fact-checkers and the “old man/lady” saying “hell no, we aren’t going to print, publish, produce such rubbish.”
Fact-checkers, editors, investigative and seasoned reporters are expensive. Eye candy is easy.
Bito, I agree. It’s a real shame too. The modern day practices you just mentioned are a real harm to journalistic integrity. Walter Cronkite once warned of the dangers of mixing news with entertainment. And man, was he ever correct. I think this is most evident in the 24/7 cable news industry.
Mr. Emerson is surely turning in his grave.
Caru, here are two small gems From the “Rolling Stones”, June 9th issue.
“2000 TIPPING THE ELECTION TO BUSH: The man Ailes put in charge of calling states on election night was John Prescott Ellis-George Bush’s first cousin. His premature call for Bush spurred every other network to follow suit. ‘Of everything that happened on election night,’ said Rep. Henry Waxman, ‘this was the most important in impact.'”
“Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us,” said David Frum, the former Bush speechwriter. “Now we’re discovering that we work for Fox.” Frum’s claim was the “axis of evil” for Bush’s speech.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-roger-ailes-built-the-fox-news-fear-factory-20110525
Fox’s power is immense.
It took President Obama displaying a COPY of his long form Birth Certificate as he was in the midst of determining the Navy Seals’ attack on Osama bin Laden. It took our President making fun of Trump’s having to make such difficult decisions that would have kept him up at night to finally make a mockery of Trump and the birther issue. And where did he lay this gem of witty sarcasm? At the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. It wasn’t just Trump who should have been embarrassed.
Definitely, Obama should have drawn a paper from the inside of his suit, preferably parchment, unravelled it and proceeded to list the amount of time each network spent covering the Birthers.
😆 Caru you almost got me. To be honest I don’t know what’s more damaging narratives or unreported stories. To me the media is like one big gas bag that has to be blown up day to day. Worse most of that gas is opinion not even news but when you try to get hard news like on what’s going on with Arab Spring the US media is completely devoid of info. That’s why I feel blessed we have Kalima, Khirad and yourself on Ireland for filling that void on the Planet with international news we get on the Planet without having to dig for it all over the net.
Thanks, KQ. Though really, much, much more credit has to go the Kalima and Khirad.
Oh I know but since Ireland is the land of my ancestors I’m fascinated when you write about current events there that’s all. 😉
Caru – you definitely had me frantic for a moment until I consulted my Congressional list to see there was NO John Smith in the House. Whew. You are all too convincing! That said, your post is FIFTH in the Google line up on “First Amendment” today, meaning some goober is certain to pick it up and BELIEVE it. So you may have created the narrative among the wingnuts. We appreciate this post, but we maybe will NOT be happy if that happens! Not your fault – stupid is not correctable, and stupid just lives and breathes in America.
The quest for not just news, maybe not EVEN news, but for massive energy around some issue, is unrelenting. Birther passion was fueled by birther media coverage. You are entirely correct about that!
My question is why we cannot do the same? I am watching different so-called “progressive” groups prepare to “fix” what ails CA, and they use the same failed rhetoric, the same failed messages, the same failed analysis that has NOT worked for the past decade. They even want to hire the same failed “experts” who keep screwing it up.
Have we nothing new under the sun to say to our fellow Americans? OK – we may NOT convert the extremists, but are there not people in the middle who are just confused, longing for a better and more sustainable way of living, passionate about finding ways NOT to be divisive – are there not good-hearted but worried people to whom we can talk?
Take the public pension issue. At the state level, there is not one single state for which tax money is used to PAY pensions. This morning a woman who has been a teacher’s aide wrote that pensions are “only” 3% of the CA budget.
NOT THEY ARE NOT! They are ZERO percent of the budget – the General Fund which pays for all we use pays NOTHING out in pensions. Zip, nada, nothing. Pensions may be 3% of all state spending, but it’s a special fund out of which taxpayers pay not one red cent. Now WHY did this woman write such a stupid thing? Because the media hopped on the bandwagon of “pensions are ruining our state and we will lie with statistics to prove it and hype it all to death.” She, recipient of a tiny monthly pension, BELIEVES what she has read, and it’s not true.
So now she has added to the “First Amendment is not Constitutional” kind of deceit.
I have written several letters to the editor about this – not ONE of them has been printed. Not one. A colleague who works as a high ranking policy person for the State Treasurer has led conference panels on the issue – and has been swept aside by conservatives who do not want the facts. My friend cannot get letters published either.
Goering wrote, “Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the [pacifists] for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.” Fill in the brackets with “labor”, “immigrants”, “minorities”, “women”, whoever – and the situation remains true.
Those defending and upholding the First Amendment in your story, Caru – they would become the dangerous people if this story were true. The media and the masters can demonize anyone. I’m not sure, any more, that Lincoln was correct: you may, indeed, be able to fool all of the people all of the time. The few who are not fooled will just be ignored or dismissed by people who should know better. That’s when the message becomes deadly dangerous.
Oh, I think that Lincoln was mostly correct. However, he failed to take into account the media, education and the “I don’t care” demographic.
Caru,
Do you ever read this stuff and shake your head in disbelief?? 😉
Do you have this sort of thing in your country, or are your government officials more sane?!
We have a few, but our main problem is that our governments are successively run by serial incompetents and civil war ideologues; though there’s much less of the latter nowadays.
caru,
Your narrative was perfect. An obscure freshmen Representative makes an idiotic statement and it’s off to the races. The non-news is suddenly “Breaking News!” with a “The White House is being very quiet and slow in it’s response.” Then they have to have someone from both sides of it heard on some show when one side being a complete idiot. Publish and broadcast for readers, clicks and ratings.
Thanks you, bito. I should have included the phrase, “obscure freshmen Representative” in the piece. It has a nice ring to it. 🙂
Caru – Yes, that’s EXACTLY how it seems to happen. You sure explained that well.
Thanks, Buddy.