Silencing the Press

Someone just told me about the Al-jazeera reporter’s funeral. I started crying in the middle of Rick’s show. I might actually have to go home.

Doesn’t anyone value accurate and timely reporting? How will we know anything if people are scared to tell us about it?

Freedom of the press is one of the most important rights we have as Americans. Second only to secret ballot (and possibly freedom of speech.)

When did this stop mattering? When did we start normalizing violent threats against reporters?

I’ll tell you when.

It’s horrible what happened to Jamal Khashoggi. And even though he worked for the Washington Post, people said “he’s not an American” and just let it go. Which is WRONG because he was doing his job FOR US. And he knew what was going to happen to him and he RECORDED IT. For us. And no one cared.

But this started with Wesley Lowery (Wapo) and Ryan Reilly (Huffington Post) getting arrested trying to file their stories from a McDonalds (free wifi) in Ferguson, Missouri because the cops didn’t want us to know. Once we let this happen, it was all down hill.

This is NOT okay. It’s time to be afraid. It’s time to internalize where we are. It’s time to step up.