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by Keith Ray.
Original Post: The Return of Freedom of the Press
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Today's quote on my google home page is "Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one." - AJ Liebling. In the days of the USA's founding fathers, anyone who wanted to get their views across to other people would hire a press, or rent or buy one, and print their own pamphlets and broadsides to distribute or sell. It was fairly democratic for that time.
In the days of television, only a very few could afford to buy television time. Broadcasters could refuse to show material they disagreed with. The common people had to resort to creating newsworthy "demonstrations", marches, speeches, etc., and hope that a sound-byte would be get broadcast by a news organization. Writing to newspapers and magazines also depends on the whim of editors as to whether your views get published.
Now just about anyone can buy or rent a web-page, or even get a free page for a blog, to get across their views. Popular or controversial content shows up on search-engines if enough people agree or disagree with it and link to it. We aren't dependent on the whims of TV or newspapers editors anymore. Power to the people! Yay!
You know, we ought to have a national holiday to celebrate our freedoms of speech and press.
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