Palin on Freedom of the Press

Palin follows in the rhetorical footsteps of McCain and Bush

In the midst of the worst economic crisis in the US since the Great Depression and the most expensive bailout, um, rescue, uhm, Wall Street handout errr, Congress bends over and takes Wall Street up the XXX, uhm, economic stabilization measures ever taken in America, Governor Palin of Alaska, the Republican Vice Presidential nominee, is worried that the American press is going to "capture and abuse" the First Amendment and she believes we must "have a mutually beneficial relationship with those fighting the freedom of the press":

As we send our young men and women overseas in a war zone to fight for democracy and freedoms, including freedom of the press, we've really got to have a mutually beneficial relationship here with those fighting the freedom of the press, and then the press, though not taking advantage and exploiting a situation, perhaps they would want to capture and abuse the privilege. We just want truth, we want fairness, we want balance.

We all understand that bashing the press (even when on the press, er, Fox) is meat to the authoritarian right-wing base, but isn't this just a little over the top? Iraq deserves freedom of the press (and it's worth thousands of American lives and tens of thousands of American wounds) but here we must maintain "a mutually beneficial relationship with those fighting the freedom of the press" and be sure that the press doesn't "capture and abuse the privilege". Freedom of the press is not a privilege, it is a right. A right so important that the founders placed it first in the Bill of Rights (hence the name, "First" Amendment).

McCain-Palin, Dictators for the New Tomorrow!