Departments



Articles

Less

Editorial: Myths, Misinformation and Propaganda
December 16th, 2008

Editorial: Editorial: Will Park Closure Just Make Things Worse?
November 29th, 2008

Editorial: Editorial: October and November Surprises
October 30th, 2008

Editorial: Is the Sky Falling?
September 24th, 2008

Editorial: Editorial: Who Reads Cedar Key News?
September 19th, 2008

Editorial: The First Hurdle for Every Child
September 3rd, 2008

Editorial: A View of China from Cedar Key
August 18th, 2008

Editorial: Who Killed the Real Estate Market?
August 8th, 2008

Editorial: Editorial: It`s Clamerica!
July 1st, 2008

Editorial: Can the City Commission Limit Noise?
June 6th, 2008

Editorial: Unintended Results Rock the Boat
May 29th, 2008

Editorial: Creeping Gas Prices
May 13th, 2008

Editorial: Cedar Key Election Soon
April 30th, 2008

Editorial: Questions fo the Candidates
April 2nd, 2008

Editorial: Coming Elections: National County and City
March 19th, 2008

More

Editorial: Freedom to Blow the Whistle

Editorial: Freedom to Blow the Whistle

Editorial

Who better to defend the right of free speech than the Press? So, when a citizen criticizes a government action or a powerful corporation endangers the public, the citizen is often attacked by the offending party. And, he is vigorously defended by the news media. The Press balances the power that incumbent politicians have over individuals.


Forty years ago President Richard Nixon used the full force of the Justice Department against Daniel Elsberg, a defense analyst, for releasing the Pentagon Papers in protest to government action in Viet Nam war. The New York Times and other new sources defended Elsberg`s whistle blowing.


A careful reader of this editorial may have noticed the adjective "incumbent" before politician.

We in the United States of America seldom need to go into the streets in protest. Whistle-blowers and an alert and righteous press can unseat entrenched incumbents! Richard Nixon resigned the Presidency of the United States in 1974, thanks to two reporters and the Washington Post.

In 1777, just a year after the Declaration of Independence, ten sailors in the U.S. Revolutionary Navy protested torture of captured British sailors by their commanding officer. Their subsequent arrest was predictable. The protesting sailors were acquitted, no doubt in part due to their case being well publicized. Congress paid for their defense. Public awareness of the sailors` moral courage was important.


The Press can defend itself. A wise man said, "Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel." We defend whistle-blowers, because they have freedom of speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution, just as we do.

Click for printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend

 

 

© 2013
Cedar Key News

cedarkeynews@gmail.com