If there is one thing the powers-that-be do not like it’s citizen journalism and the alternative media and currently proposed Senate legislation aims to ultimately destroy it. Thursday’s remarks by Sen.Dianne Feinstein reiterate just how desperate they are at accomplishing that goal.
Since the founding of the United States, citizens passionate about keeping the public informed about important information have been hailed as integral to the safety and security of the US and its people.
As a result, individuals distributing information they’d written and related images (journalists), to anyone wanting to read that information, became one of the most protected classes in society. Regardless of who that individual may be or who they were distributing their information to.
The founders realized it was so important in fact it was spelled out in the very first Amendment to the Constitution and legal arguments throughout the years have solidified the necessity of maintaining those protections. To not only insure the safety and privacy of journalists and their sources, but also their freedom to purvey that information. As long as what was published doesn’t jeopardize national security or the secret identity of an agent of the government who is also working to protect those freedoms.
The founders knew that “news” was typically something someone else didn’t want printed and thus the very reason for the need for those protections. Especially if that information pertains to the government, or any potential wrongdoings or crimes being committed by government officials, so the people may stay informed and educated about their government and what it’s doing, for their own protection as well.
Over the past few decades however consolidation of almost every commercial media outlet in the country has ultimately led to the monopolization of media down to over 90% of everything the average American hears on commercial US airwaves.
This has not only allowed for extreme elite control over the information that flows through those channels, it has opened a window of opportunity for individuals not related to that major media-establishment to have a platform of their own. The “alternative” media. The vast majority of which operates on the internet. Mirroring what the media generally used to be, prior to the establishment media’s total consolidation.
Many people have naturally and rightfully been attracted to this alternative resource through what was an inevitable transition, as people began to realize they actually had a choice.
As time has gone by, people have slowly begun realizing many citizen journalists and alternative media outlets to be far more credible than just about any of the options available through the old, monopolized system of so-called “elite,” establishment/corporate-owned news. This includes both those holding journalism or mass media degrees and related educations, to individuals who have simply realized their passion for information sharing and have been recognized as reliable sources, regardless of whether or not they hold so-called “formal” media-related degrees.
But as much as people have been understandably reluctant to come to terms with the information they’re being allowed to see in the alternative media as a whole, largely because of just how shocking and unnerving the truth happens to be, the process of transformation from establishment news being the most watched, to the alternative media threatening the old media’s very existence, has been happening nonetheless. Prompting the old establishment to seek ways to combat what seems to be an eventual and inevitable changing of the guard.
SOPA, PIPA and CISPA were some of the first attempts by the establishment to regain control over the flow of US news and information, billed as attempts to stop “online piracy” (a non-issue) and to ensure so-called “cybersecurity,” an issue itself that should be left up to each individual company or corporation to pay for and worry about on their own. ...
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