We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Controlling the Flow: Thoughts on the Free Flow of Information Act

Click here to access article by Tricia Todd from The Huffington Post.
While many Mainstream Media outlets support the law, it does little to benefit the freelancers who frequently provide robust coverage of under-reported stories. Further, it specifically targets those who publish in what some members of Congress would deem questionable outlets, such as watchdog groups or independent blogs.
This discusses a key piece of legislation before Congress that could mark a major turning point in the control of information that we now have access to. This law might be an effort at constructing a noose to hang many independent journalists and others like myself who pass on their reports. 

This proposed legislation is another illustration of how constitutional guarantees can be rather easily subverted by the ruling class whenever they are seen as impediments to their rule. In this case we might see a direct assault on constitutional guarantees of press freedom. In most cases unconstitutional actions are engaged in through various means such as government secrecy, control of major media, persecution of leakers, even targeted assassinations of journalists (see this, this, and this), control of courts, and international agreements such as the so-called "free trade" agreements.