The American broadcast media's ongoing blackout of NDAA and SOPA -- and their race to marginalize GOP presidential front-runner Ron Paul -- suggests a level of moral bankruptcy in the press that is troubling, to say the least.
Even though President Obama is on vacation in Hawaii, NDAA sits on his desk, and could receive his signature via autopen at any moment -- certain hotly contested provisions within the NDAA would allow for the lifelong imprisonment of American citizens on US soil, by military force, without right to a trial, access to an attorney, and so forth -- yet the media isn't talking about it?
Similarly, SOPA has reached an advanced stage in Congress -- like a metastasizing deadly cancer -- and would allow for totalitarian-style censorship of US Internet content without trial. Even this article would be subject to removal under SOPA provisions. Yet the media isn't talking about it?
Look, you don't have to be a Ron Paul supporter. But you do have to see that the media plays a vicious game where it considers Iowa a major stepping stone in the path to the presidency, UNLESS someone they don't favor is the front-runner there (as is the case with Ron Paul's surging popularity). Now, all of a sudden, the pundits are crawling out from underneath their rocks to tell the American people that Iowa has become "irrelevant."
Something is desperately wrong here.
Yes, you can argue that FOX News is owned by News Corporation -- which also owns the FOX television and movie studio. Yes, you can argue that CNN is owned by Time Warner -- which also owns the Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema movie studios.
Is this the reason why they are silent on SOPA? To protect their respective parent company's box office profits?
It's a tempting line of paranoia, but not convincing enough. Surely at least one or two producers at these networks must have a conscience? Surely they realize that totalitarian censorship, and detainment of Americans without giving them a trial, is fundamentally wrong? It goes beyond political affiliations or economic status: these bills affect every single American.
