An Official Secrets Act for America?

This Post originally ran in December of 2005!

The Mainstream Media is so abusing their right of “freedom of the press” that the right itself is in danger of being withdrawn. Truth be told, not many of us would be terribly upset with a number of limitations on the press.

For instance, I would support an “Official Secrets Act” similar to that of Great Britain. I think the American Media has shown itself to be unworthy of our trust and their recent rush to publish materials harmful to the US efforts to secure the country certainly raise questions concerning the MSM’s loyalty to the US.

When the press goes into competition with each other to see which of them can release the most secrets of our government, when that government is in a contest to prevent the deaths of thousands of Americans, then that is abuse of the Constitutional Right to Freedom of the Press.

Editing any publication is a continuous judgment call. As a former member of the press, I have had to make those judgment calls while trying to balance the public’s right to know, and the effect upon that same public, if I did broadcast a particular story. I don’t mind telling you there were stories I did not broadcast because in my judgment, the effects of the knowledge, contained in that story, upon the public, would have been detrimental to them. It’s called “being responsible”. There were stories I would not run when my competition would, and did, run them. I was never sorry for refusing to run a story that I felt would do no good and might have, in fact, caused harm. I did not second-guess myself. That’s what an editor does.

Now, I was in a tiny, little, broadcast market here in the Southeast. The effects of any story I might broadcast were limited. But, when you consider the mainstream media’s reach, the damage a published report could do is well nigh incomprehensible.

How important was it for you and I to know that the wiretapping, of suspected terrorist, was being practiced by the government to gather valuable information on those suspected of planning to do harm to America. Can you remember being told when the Clinton Administration, the Carter Administration, and the Reagan Administration did the same thing? Why is it important now, and not then?

How important was it for you and I to know that the US government had set up radioactivity scanners, on public grounds, near Islamic Mosques in the US to help protect us against a “Dirty Bomb”?

Now that the terrorists know this, now that they have this information, which OUR MSM supplied them, they will certainly change their mode of communication and, you can bet your sweet bippy, they will not store any radioactive material in a Mosque!

An Official Secrets Act, if drawn up properly, would put the screws to the MSM when they attempted or, were successful, in printing, or broadcasting, information such as that contained in the stories I mentioned above.

The abuse of the First Amendment by the MSM, I believe, has caused the war in Iraq to last longer than it should have, cost more US lives than was necessary, and is having an adverse effect upon the US government’s attempt to secure the United States against the terrorists who are determined to kill as many Americans as often as they can.

The MSM must be reined-in one way… or the other!

Longstreet