{"id":64825,"date":"2017-10-19T07:00:06","date_gmt":"2017-10-19T12:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=64825"},"modified":"2017-10-18T20:21:46","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T01:21:46","slug":"speaking-entitlement-to-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=64825","title":{"rendered":"Speaking Entitlement To Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

SCENE:\u00a0 Mitch BERG is at the Saint Paul Farmers Market, buying pickling cucumbers.<\/em><\/p>\n

He is surprised when MyLissa Silberman – National Public Radio’s Saint Paul bureau correspondent – walks up behind him.<\/em><\/p>\n

SILBERMAN:\u00a0 Merg.<\/p>\n

BERG:\u00a0 Oh, hi, MyLyssa.<\/p>\n

SILBERMAN: Republicans are trying to destroy the free media.<\/p>\n

BERG:\u00a0 Er, what now?<\/p>\n

SILBERMAN:\u00a0 A Republican legislator is proposing licensing journalists<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The measure\u00a0would require journalists \u2014 defined as anyone writing or broadcasting news for a newspaper, magazine, website or television or radio station \u2014 to be registered and fingerprinted by the police\u00a0and vetted for their \u201ccharacter and reputation.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

BERG:\u00a0 I think you missed the point.<\/p>\n

SILBERMAN:\u00a0 No – it’s right here:<\/p>\n

Committing journalism without a license within 500 feet of school or on a school bus would bump the penalty up from a misdemeanor to a felony. Journalists with felony or domestic battery convictions would be prevented from getting licenses. And unlicensed people would still be able to engage in journalism on property they own or rent.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s some serious infringement of a vital constitutional right.<\/p>\n

BERG:\u00a0 Um, yeah.\u00a0 I heard you report about that.\u00a0 Problem was, you missed the important part:<\/p>\n

State Rep. Jim Lucas, a Republican from the southeastern part of Indiana and a vocal critic of his state\u2019s gun restrictions, drafted the bill by copying\u00a0language from a state law that requires\u00a0a license to carry a handgun in public.<\/p>\n

With these laws proposed for journalists, Lucas’s measure reads like satire.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

SILBERMAN:\u00a0 What are you talking about?<\/p>\n

BERG:\u00a0 Lucas\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>satirizing gun control laws; making people get a permit to exercise an essential Constitutional liberty, and putting all sorts of restrictions on it that have not thing to do with either public safety or, in its satirical form, the news.<\/p>\n

SILBERMAN: But..Trump!<\/p>\n

President Trump, who has demonized the news media as \u201cthe enemy of the American People<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0alarmed\u00a0free-speech advocates this week by writing on Twitter\u00a0that\u00a0NBC\u00a0News should be punished by regulators after the organization published a\u00a0report that he did not like.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

BERG: OK.\u00a0 So?\u00a0 Trump said things that make the media uncomfortable.\u00a0 Big f****ng whoop.\u00a0 He can’t enforce any of it.<\/p>\n

SILBERMAN:\u00a0 No, Merg.\u00a0 I repeat:<\/p>\n

President Trump, who has demonized the news media as \u201cthe enemy of the American People<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0alarmed\u00a0free-speech advocates this week by writing on Twitter\u00a0that\u00a0NBC\u00a0News should be punished by regulators after the organization published a\u00a0report that he did not like.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

BERG:\u00a0 Right.\u00a0 You already said it.\u00a0 He demonizes the media.<\/p>\n

Thing is, this proposal – it’s not even a bill, yet – isn’t about “oppressing the media”.\u00a0 It’s about pointing out the double standards of the left and media (pardon the redundancy); hawkish absolutists about the sanctity of the First Amendment, dilatory and fuzzy on the Secone.<\/p>\n

SILBERMAN:\u00a0 But that’s unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

BERG:\u00a0 How so?<\/p>\n

SILBERMAN:\u00a0 \u00a0Were you paying attention?\u00a0 He said:<\/p>\n

President Trump, who has demonized the news media as \u201cthe enemy of the American People<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0alarmed\u00a0free-speech advocates this week by writing on Twitter\u00a0that\u00a0NBC\u00a0News should be punished by regulators after the organization published a\u00a0report that he did not like.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

BERG:\u00a0 \u00a0MyLissa, it’s not about the media<\/em>, per se.\u00a0 Although the media is certainly focuses on it.\u00a0 Because it seems that the only civil rights the media\u00a0really\u00a0<\/em>gets exercised about are its own.\u00a0 First Amendment rights of non-media people?\u00a0 Second, Fourth, Ninth and Tenth?\u00a0 \u00a0Crickets”.<\/p>\n

SILBERMAN: LIsten<\/em>, Merg:\u00a0\u00a0“President Trump, who has demonized the news media as<\/em>\u00a0…”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But BERG has already disappeared.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

And SCENE.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCENE:\u00a0 Mitch BERG is at the Saint Paul Farmers Market, buying pickling cucumbers. He is surprised when MyLissa Silberman – National Public Radio’s Saint Paul bureau correspondent – walks up behind him. SILBERMAN:\u00a0 Merg. BERG:\u00a0 Oh, hi, MyLyssa. SILBERMAN: Republicans are trying to destroy the free media. BERG:\u00a0 Er, what now? SILBERMAN:\u00a0 A Republican legislator […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[372,4],"tags":[236],"class_list":["post-64825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fake-news","category-media","tag-dramatization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64825"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64838,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64825\/revisions\/64838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}