Special considerations during war should not be made in order to hide the corrupt nature of acting governments. If the right of free speech is taken away when it should be used to the fullest, the government can lie exponentially. During the Vietnam War, the Johnson administration manipulated information to keep the general public in support of the war. Had reporters been able to uncover the shortcomings of the conflict, the decade long conflict could have ended much sooner.
I am not in support of the government suspending the rights of journalists and the media. When such censorship happens, wrongdoing is sure to follow. For example, the Wikileaks scandal involving Julain Assange should have been constitutionally viable. But because the government has an interest in covering up the tragedies of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, the American people will have difficulty learning the truth of the matter.
I wholeheartedly agree with what you are saying George that the free speech rigths of the public and the right of the press to cover a story honestly and informitively so as not to leave the public in the dark and allowing the government to utilize a crisis for its own political gain. However, for the sake of substantive debate, where I disagree with you somewhat is the case of the wikileaks scandal involving PVT. Bradley Manning, the invididual who gathered the information published by Julian Assange. This case seems to differ from the other two examples that you presented because this information was classified and released to the public by a military personnel. That to me seems to differ from the press performing its necessary function of investigative reporting. Bradley Manning likely committed treason by releasing these documents to the public and by doing so he may have put the secururity of the country at risk. There has also been no evidence presented that the classified information that he released should not have been classified--unlike the Pentagon Papers which you mentioned earlier. This is much different from a reputable newspaper using proper channels and sources under the protection of law to disclose to the public the true nature of an event like the War in Afghanistan. However, when disclosing proper information to the public becomes an impermissible act because of government censorship, then the government has gone too far in muzzeling the media. Unfortunately this has happened more times than we all would like.
ReplyDeleteI very much agree with your ideas that the government should not be able to censor media because their censorship may often occur in order to cover up their wrongdoings. In these cases, their wrongdoings should be exposed, so long as national security will not be threatened. While it is very important for us, as citizens, to be correctly informed of the news, in a timely fashion, I guess I would much rather NOT find something out if it meant that my safety, and the safety of the country could potentially be threatened.
ReplyDeleteThe government does benefit from covering up tragedies. They benefit because: A. The American people will be sparred of knowing that these terrible things are happening around the world and B. Because the government can avoid having to take responsibilities for its actions. With that being said, I do see why people believe that the government tries to censor the news for their own well-being. However, I believe that the government censors for OUR well being and has OUR best interest at heart and people need to understand this.
ReplyDelete