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Freedom of the Press?
by A.X. Perez
perez180ehs -+at+- hotmail.com

Attribute to The Libertarian Enterprise

Yesterday(22 November, 2008) I picked up a copy of El Diario, the local Spanish language news paper. Usually I peruse the El Paso Times, the local English language rag, as I am primarily an Anglophone ( Ring, ring.. Hello, old chap.). However the headline and lead story caught my attention.

Basically the story was a report that the US was declining and would cease being the dominant power in the World in twenty years. Instead power will be spread out between several nations, including China, India, Russia, and Brazil. The US will probably part of this group but...

Now since the purpose of the US government is to protect our freedom, not dominate the planet, I don't have a problem with this at first glance. As long as my freedoms as an American citizen (and those of my fellow Americans) are protected, I don't really care if we are number one or part of the pack. As long as our freedom is protected.

I always take a second and third look at things. Would a declining America "nova" into a more blatantly imperialist power, sacrificing our freedom and that of the rest of the world to prolong the power of our rulers? Would punk dictators sacrifice our freedom to delay the inevitable? Would foreign enemies (and we've made a few, haven't we?) partition the US and leave us ( or at least some of us) under foreign rulers and/or their satraps who have no love for the Bill of Rights?

More importantly, I noticed a dearth of reports in the TV news, the 'net, and the English language press covering this story. Okay, so I didn't look that hard.

Still, it is a big story. More importantly, it seems to me that the best way to ameliorate the negative effects of other nations rising in power on the world stage is proper planning and acting on these plans. And it seems to me that if preserving American liberty as well as power is a goal of the praxis these plans lead to they should be made in the light, the "naked light of day" of governmental openness and the "flashlight beam" of press snoopiness.

The infernal regions are not experiencing glaciation, so governmental openness is not a reliable option.

I don't see flashlight beams.

The American press has always claimed to be a bulwark of liberty (Okay, stop rolling on the floor). Failure to cover this story (remember I'm submitting this 23 November for publication on the 30th and am betting that the US press will not adequately report in the week in between.) implies complicity in the more negative scenarios of how this plays out. Including the one where government officials, not complacent reporters and editors, censor the news.

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