Pubdate: Wed, 6 Oct 2010
Source: Statesman Journal (Salem, OR)
Copyright: 2010 Statesman Journal
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/QEzJupzz
Website: http://www.statesmanjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/427
Author: Gene Policinski
Note: Gene Policinski is vice president and executive director of the 
First Amendment Center, 1101 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22209; 
firstamendmentcenter.org

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OUR NEWS MEDIA AND OTHERS': 45 WORDS

What a difference 45 words can make.

The freedoms of speech and press spelled out in the 45 words of the 
First Amendment protect U.S. journalists from government restraint or 
reprisal for what they say or write.

As a result, with rare exceptions, throughout our history journalists 
have sometimes risked reputation, circulation or ratings -- but not 
their lives -- for what they have published or broadcast.

Take the White House's latest volley against Fox News. The New York 
Times reported Sept. 28 that President Barack Obama, in a new Rolling 
Stone magazine interview, says Fox News promotes a point of view 
"ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that 
has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world."

Consider that this is arguably the most powerful single individual on 
the planet, saying that a specific news operation threatens the 
future of the nation. So what was Fox News' response? Executives 
"declined to respond" -- effectively communicating a corporate yawn 
to the presidential criticism.

Contrast this situation with the plight of journalists in northern 
Mexico, where the de facto authorities -- invasive and ruthless drug 
cartels -- have been killing journalists, and doing so with relative impunity.

The Los Angeles Times reported recently that an estimated 30 
reporters had been killed or had gone missing since a government 
effort began in 2006 to break up the powerful criminal groups. The 
article followed an extraordinary editorial in a newspaper in Ciudad 
Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, that appealed to 
the drug lords to tell it what news they don't want published. The 
front-page plea followed the killing of second journalist on the paper's staff.

In the Los Angeles Times report, Mexican journalists did not refrain 
from commenting but they spoke anonymously: "You love journalism. You 
love the pursuit of truth. You love to perform a civic service and 
inform your community. But you love your life more," one unidentified 
editor said. "We don't like the silence. But it's survival."

Sadly, journalists in the United States today are not immune from 
violent threats made from other nations where the "marketplace of 
ideas" is, quite literally, a foreign concept.

On Sept. 15, editors at the Seattle Weekly noted in the newspaper 
that "you may have noticed that Molly Norris' comic is not in the 
paper this week. That's because there is no more Molly."

The item went on to explain that the cartoonist was alive but had 
gone into hiding because she was targeted in June in a "fatwa" (a 
call by a Yemeni Islamic cleric for deadly reprisal for an alleged 
religious offense).

The reason? For drawing a controversial cartoon calling for an 
"Everybody Draw Mohammed Day." The cartoon was a satire on 
international criticism of newspapers that published satirical 
drawings of Islam's revered figure.

There's nothing in the First Amendment's free-press guarantee that 
protects reporters, editors or cartoonists from criticism, either by 
government figures or private citizens.

But it's deplorable that Norris or any journalist -- in the United 
States, Mexico or anywhere -- should fear for his or her life just 
for expressing a view or reporting news that offends someone.

You and I may agree with the president about Fox News or we may abhor 
that he so openly attacked a conservative news organization for 
critical reporting and commentary on his policies. But in any event, 
nobody has gone to jail or into hiding just because he doesn't like 
someone's particular take on the news.

What a difference just 45 words -- and the democratic society they 
helped shape and sustain -- make. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake