All The News That’s Fit To Print!

I wonder who is priveed to what the executive branch of government is doing, since the legislative branch has been effectively shutout of executing this war on terror. The people of this great nation sign the paychecks of the people who are carrying out this war, but there needs to be some oversight. Oversight by our legislative branch, the Congress!


Since they fail to do their job, our last line of oversight seems to be The Press. That same press that has been accused of rolling over and not doing their jobs for the last 5 or so years.


According to Edward S. Herman in Z Magazine, the term “All The News That’s Fit To Print” comes from:


The New York Times’s masthead logo, “All The News That’s Fit to Print,” dates back to 1896, the first year of Ochs-Sulzberger family control of the paper, and both the family control and arrogant belief in the benevolence and superior judgment of the dominant owners persist to this day. The 1997 Proxy Statement of The New York Times Company explains the special voting rights that assure family control in terms of the desire for “an independent newspaper, entirely fearless, free of ulterior influence and tinselfishly devoted to the public welfare.”


So how can a newspaper that is not privied to “Classified” information be accused of releasing it? See the Wiki: Classified_information .


So if investigative journalists are told that everything that they do is being held for national security and the war on terrorism, then we run into the potential of a quasi-censorship situation. While papers, such as the NY Times has used candor to ensure that they don’t quickly jump to publish stories without considering National Security, because they are not the government, they have different standards and rules when it comes to publishing material to the public, and that public can be more than just US Citizens.


Can we rely on the Press to be the eyes and ears of the people when our Congress has failed us? What will the people who are relying on its government to keep us safe do? Who is watching the watchers? Maybe there is more news that’s fit to print.

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