Tuesday, February 28, 2017

First They Came For The Mainstream Media...

By Chris Rossini

By now, we've all heard about the Trump Administration blocking certain media organizations from a press briefing, and from a standpoint of liberty, this is not a positive development.

No, it has nothing to do with "protecting democracy." There's absolutely nothing sacred about democracy. Nor does it have to do with protecting a "free press," since mainstream media in America is crony down to the cellular level.


The danger lies in the expansion of government power to suppress dissent. Liberty and government power are forever at war with one another. As one expands, the other must necessarily recede. Both cannot be king of the hill at the same time, as one negates the other.

Does the mainstream media dislike President Trump? 

Yes.

Does the mainstream media lie?

Of course.

Does the mainstream media spread "fake news?"

Yes...YouTube is bursting with countless examples.

Are they propagandists?

You bet.

Then shouldn't we cheer when President Trump locks these misfits out a press briefing?

No!!!

To repeat: Liberty is forever at war with government power. The press, as noxious as it can become can't tax you, nor can it draft you into the military, or throw you into jail. The press can lie (and they certainly do) but everyone has it in their power to ignore them (which many people also certainly do).

In order for liberty to exist, it is government power that must be held in check. For it is the nature of power to constantly seek the expansion of its coercion.


That's what government seeks to do at all times...expand...expand...expand. 

It ultimately wants no limits whatsoever.

Such expansion must always be presented to the public in a way that won't generate significant backlash. Since the use of fear is the number one tool of governments, they naturally wrap their expansion around some disliked or feared element in society.

For example, our financial transactions are monitored. Americans didn't cry to government to do this. Government just did it.

But they wrapped the monitoring around the fear of drug traffickers, money launderers, and terrorists.

As a result, if you want to take a certain amount of money out of your bank account, your name passes through an alphabet soup of government databases.


As Edward Snowden revealed, American communications are all being collected by the government. Why? It's wrapped around the fear of terrorists.

TSA gropes Americans at the airports, despite the fact that it's been shown to be just security theatre. Why? Fear of terrorists again.

So you see, these unbelievable expansions of government power are wrapped around elements that are disliked by normal society.

That's why politicians always try to appeal to the good nature of people. They're always helping "the children," or "the poor."

What, you have a problem with helping children? You don't want the government to help the poor? What kind of monster are you?

These are all wrappers, and they work like a charm.


Now let's go back to the mainstream media. They hurt themselves big time after this last presidential election. Their viciousness against Donald Trump could not have been made more obvious.

As a result, American opinion of the mainstream media is deservingly very low. People are ignoring them. In fact, there are YouTube channels covering the news that have many more viewers than mainstream media. 


Since mainstream media is despised, it provides a splendid opportunity for government power to capitalize.

Government can block out dissent, and the American people will be OK with it!

Not only OK with it, they'll cheer it on!

What, you support the slimy, lying, agenda pushing mainstream media? What kind of monster are you?


That's where the danger lies with the recent actions by the Trump Administration. It has nothing to do with "democracy" or some fictional "free press". It has to do with government barring dissent, no matter how ridiculous that dissent may be.

That doesn't mean that Trump is Hitler, or that he's going to be Hitler, or any of that nonsense.

Trump can be a perfect angel for the next four years. This is not about individual presidents, but about the expansion of government power.


Because government is a violent force, there must be as many eyes and ears monitoring it as possible. Yes, even if it's the slimy mainstream media.

Once dissent is banned, a bad set of circumstances can be set into motion. Those circumstances may not even appear for years to come. Again, Trump can be a perfect angel for the rest of his term.

But what if a radical Socialist takes power someday in America? That's certainly not out of the question. Just take a look at America's universities. 

What if that administration decides to bar everyone that questions their utopian ideas?

If the Socialist administration knows that barring any media is equivalent to political suicide, they won't dare to try it. But if a precedent exists, it makes the whole operation much easier to pull off.


Is President Trump setting a precedent?

Will future historians look back and say: "First, they came for the mainstream media..."?

Liberty has taken a hit, despite the cheers for President Trump.

Whenever Liberty takes a hit, it can only mean one thing:

Government power has expanded.


The above originally appeared at The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

6 comments:

  1. I fail to be persuaded by Chris Rossini's words. CNN, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Politico offer lies in lesser or greater amounts. If such lie mongers are given less opportunity then truth has a greater chance of finding purchase on this Earth.

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    1. All the news media lies. So do Infowars and Breitbart. If that is the standard, there should be no news briefing at all.

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  2. Bob, What is government power? Why is it the individual official or a group of officials have any power over others (us)? Why do they have this power? Why is one gang of thugs with guns and badges adhered to by us and some other group with guns and its claims to authority is not?

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  3. First they came for the media. Then the jews and racial minorities. Then the country was a much better place and they didn't come anymore.

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  4. You forgot to mention that the term "fake news" was coined by Hillary, Obama and CNN to build contempt for alternative media. Trump brilliantly turned the weapon back onto them and since the evidence is so clear, most sane people agree with him. You also forgot to mention that actual law was passed (NDAA 2017)just before Trump took office to implement censoring programs of alternative media sources. They have started. By all objective measure MSM is state-run. Alternative media is not. Will they both have bias? - sure. Will they both declare bias openly ? Only MSM claims authoritative power and no agenda. Alt media recognizes their own bias and is much more factual that MSM - by a long shot. Thank God for the WWW! No wonder the Globalists want to control it totally. MSM as it has evolved in the 20th C has exactly zero value in the realm of preserving free speech.

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  5. Your assertions have nothing to do with freedom or liberty, Chris Rossini. Time to go back and take Liberty 101.

    Delete your post.

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