Government Licensed Journalists?

FoxNews had an alarming piece on their site this morning which would spell the end of an independent news media. Rosa Brooks, a former journalist for the L.A. Times and member of the Obama administration acting as an advisor to the Pentagon wants to save the floundering media by having “direct government support for public media” and, oh yes, “creating licenses to govern news operations.”

L. Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog group, shares my concern.

“"Since when did our Founding Fathers envision that ... you could exercise your right to freedom of speech provided you had a license from the federal government? This is the kind of stuff you have revolutions about," he told FOXNews.com.”

The government has been trimming away basic rights and freedoms a little piece at a time for years. We have become a nation of cowards and fools trading liberty for the promise of safety and security. Benjamin Franklin's warning has been ignored time and time again, “Those who sacrifice Liberty for security deserve neither”.

Next thing you know government will be requiring occupational licenses for bloggers. What’s that you say; a license to express your opinion? What’s the difference between an independent blogger with a politically active site and large media outlets? There isn’t any!

I wrote about the government licensing of the locksmith industry and their continual assaults on private enterprise over the years; but that small insignificant industry take over didn’t seem to bother too many folks. I continue in my attempts to reverse the trend, to what extent is possible, through my individual efforts; however, I don’t have a staff of competent lawyers to file motions before the courts and there’s that minor detail of having to make a living.

Where is America headed when folks sit quietly and watch radical changes to our basic structured society and do nothing? Maybe when you pick up your state owned and run copy of the newspaper, the one where everything has been filtered of anything resembling a critique of the powers in office, maybe then folks will figure out what’s happening to the America of our Founding Fathers; only it will have been too late!