The United States has continued to fall in the annual ranking of global press freedom under President Barack Obama. The U.S. fell three places to 49th from its already low 46th place last year by Reporters Without Borders 2015 World Press Freedom Index.
The index shows that the United States is now ranked behind Malta, Niger, and Burkina Faso. Despite the continued support of many liberals, President Obama has racked up one of the most hostile Administrations in history to press freedom. Indeed, President Obama has been called by leading reporters one of the most anti-media Administration in a generation.
In case you are looking for press freedom, you can look at the top 15 countries, where you will find some of our closest allies:
#1 Finland
#2 Norway
#3 Denmark
#4 Netherlands
#5 Sweden
#6 New Zealand
#7 Austria
#8 Canada
#9 Jamaica
#10 Estonia
#11 Ireland
#12 Germany
#13 Czech Republic
#14 Slovakia
#15 Belgium
As previously written, we tend to talk a good game about our freedoms as if they are inviolate and guaranteed. The fact is that we have have a serious rollback on civil liberties in the last decade — a trend that threatens not just our freedoms but our very identity. In the meantime, Mongolia has good reason to hope that it will pass up the U.S. just a couple spots ahead on the rankings for next year.
Nick
So, here you go. First, the Koch brothers are the greatest threat to American ideals or at the very least tied in first place. They funded Scott Walker primarily to reduce the ability of government union workers or perhaps just plain workers to arbitrate with their employers, the government. They could care less about the government workers in Wisconsin. Their goal is to deny workers rights and set precedents from which to build to their advantage. They are oligarchs who happen to own dozens of companies that employ hundreds of thousands. Yes they give to charity and pass out grants but to whom they wish to support, to those that mirror their perception of America. They are aristocrats that function best when those in the world that serve them stay in their place and have little to no say. Indulge yourself with a little research. They are the antithesis of America.
Regarding the freedoms in America and Canada, there are those that exist, those that are stated, and those that are perceived. It is true that the US has had from its inception broader and more idealistic freedoms than Canada. Therein lay strengths as well as weaknesses. Although the laws permitting gun ownership in Canada allow a citizen to own a weapon, Canadians do not measure themselves by these rights. This is due primarily to how the two countries came to be. The US was born out of a revolution and continues with this struggle idealistically as well as practically to this day. This is often the case when ideals begin an experience abruptly. Witness the French Revolution. It takes a while to achieve them.
Canada on the other hand came about over decades through democratic adapting of the needs of government, the desires/demands of the people, and the times. Through Canada’s laws and its raison d’être, Canada contradicts its basic intents as well. However, Canada is a work in progress in that area of initial statements, documents, and declarations, where the US was born whole, so to speak. Both countries have in common the freedoms needed for citizens to adjust their governments’ application of these freedoms.
Another important difference is found in the size or largesse of what makes each country. Canada did not have slavery and did not fight a war between its selves. However, racism and bigotry, which existed in a large way in the past, as can be researched in the treatment of French Canadians and their ongoing reactionary ‘snit’, are thankfully in decline. Who is to say if half of the population of the Prairie Provinces had been slaves at one time that the problems found still in the fabric of America would not be found in the fabric of Canada. Proportionately the American experience with racism and bigotry was far greater, perhaps that makes the achievement of overcoming it that much greater itself.
In my opinion, circumstance is the engine that drives a country and molds its people. Canada has its faults in the areas of free speech but they have been and continue to be less challenged by circumstance than in the US. The rights and freedoms denied Canadians by its government are, as in the US, minuscule compared to the rights and freedoms permitted.
The US is a large and volatile country as can be seen through its history. Canada is a much smaller and more evolving experiment. The US started with a set of rules drawn up at its inception. Canada just recently added a bill of rights. Canada negotiated its way to independence and continues to do so regarding freedom. The US set goals in the beginning and struggles in its own way to achieve them. Both countries are works in progress, as are all peoples.
issac – first, the Koch brothers do no more or less than George Soros, so get off your high horse. Second, comparing the United States to Canada is comparing apples to kiwi fruit. The British Empire bent over backwards to keep the Canadians in the Empire after the Declaration of Independence. Had Britain handled the colonies the same way as Canada, we would still be part of the Empire.
Issac
Really?
And you know all this how about the Koch brothers? Please don’t quote to me from the hatred of Liberal sources. My Grandparents came to the United States from Quebec and my Grandfather Homer Conde Started a Printing Business during the Depression. My Grandmother was the Daughter of a Doctor and when my Grandfather passed away, as she was an RN, she raised 5 children on her salary and my Aunts and Uncles all became something in their own right.
Furthermore, what do you have to say about all of the Energy Companies in Tar Sands in Canada that are doing business in the United States like Enbridge for example, and that is only one example. They are going to use the Keystone Pipeline whom many Liberals hate because of the Koch brothers and the lies promulgated about the oil all going to China
http://www.enbridge.com/InvestorRelations/StockInformation/Ownership.aspx
Should you take the time to peruse this link you will see that this is a patent lie and that the oil is used industrially by 29% in the USA. Also only 1% of the Enbridge people own it and 3% of it is retail in the USA as far as ownership by stocks and bonds.
I don’t know why on earth Liberal Progressives go insane when they hear Koch brothers except if they listen to Rachel Maddow or MSNBC because I made the mistake ONE time of turning that station on and the Liberals screaming about it was unbelievable.
The Koch Brothers are not spending a Billion on that election. They have corrected that mis statement over and over but the Liberals can’t leave it alone
*****
Correction: A headline on an earlier version of this story incorrectly suggested that the money would all be spent on the 2016 elections.The $889 million budget includes financing not just for politically active groups, but also for free-market think tanks, foundations and universities. It has been corrected.
*****
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/koch-backed-network-aims-to-spend-nearly-1-billion-on-2016-elections/2015/01/26/77a44654-a513-11e4-a06b-9df2002b86a0_story.html
I am a Classical Liberal – meaning that I am after the school of John Locke and Adam Smith. I am very tired of their schools being trashed as this is where the Koch brothers with their success come from.
How terrible it is they give money for cancer and billions of dollars for aged people that are patients that can’t afford it.
That is terrible. Just awful 😉
The is a new book being published in a month or so. It was written by a Labrador named Otter who yakked into a Dogalogue Machine and cooperated with a guy named Stanley who was retired from the NSA. They are both deceased. It is called: Yo, It’s Me Otter: A Labrador’s Field Guide To Training One’s Human. It was edited for severe cuss words and will be in paperback and Kindle format. Those of you who are without dogs would do well to read it. Those of you who have dogs would do well to take your dog’s guidance.
A perfect example of the government’s efforts to silence the free press is Maryland Attorney General, Douglas Gansler’s fraudulent schemes to shut down my website http://www.marylandcorruption.com on behalf of alleged organized crime syndicate figures, Gilbert (father) and Mark C. Sapperstein (son).
Marylandcorruption.com chronicles the rise to power of a couple politically well connected (alleged to be the close personal friends of former Maryland Attorney General Joseph Curran Jr.) Baltimore street hustlers, and their associate Charles R. Longo.
As the top state law enforcement official, Gansler didn’t like the truth and public disclosure being told about the collusion between the top federal prosecutors in Maryland & Florida, colluding with the top MD. & FL. state prosecutors, acting in concert with the politically well connected law firms in the private sector protecting, promoting, and pandering to the interest of Gilbert, Mark C. Sapperstein, and Charles R. Longo and others.
Gansler & Mark C. Sapperstein cooked up a fraud scheme and threatened to charge with serious crimes if I didn’t capitulate to his demands to shut down my website marylandcorruption.com.
I’m a Florida resident so Gansler had to come across interstate lines to deliver this threat. Gansler has no jurisdiction in the State of Florida.
I held my ground and eventually Gansler and his buddy Mark C. Sapperstein stuck their tails between their legs and whimpered away.
You can find more info. on the Sappersteins and their multitude of fraud schemes and Longo and his notorious truck driver training schools National Training Systems and Shippers Choice by doing a search at:
City Paper (Baltimore)
Washington Post
Baltimore Sun
Abell report: Underground Video Gambling
Stone vs. Warfield (1998 Southern District of Florida)
This is a case where the top Federal Prosecutors from Maryland & Florida are caught lying in federal court trying to white wash the criminal activities of Longo & Sappersteins et al as a “Business Dispute or Civil Matter”.
Stone vs. Warfield (1998 Maryland)
It also involves a retired Georgetown University Professor who was a known associate of Longo and Sappersteins.
Obama has a dog. He treats his dog right. By the look of things I think Obama will pass the test at the Pearly Gates when his time comes and come back as a dog. We need a new dog breed. Obama Dog. Half Lab and Half Poodle. PooLab. Obama Lab. Obama Oodle. Help me out here with the names folks. A mix. Born right here in America. Or Hawaii. Well, that’s America. Does not have to go to Harvard or Yale. You couldn’t tell a dog that went to Harvard or Yale a thing. They know everything. Maybe Mizzou. Whats a good dog college?
BarkinDog – there is no reason to believe that Obama deals with the family dog. He really is too much of a narcissist to have a dog. The dog is for the daughters.
To aridog: “Dog food” is in the eye of the beholder. Maybe in DC in the eye of Holder. When the human pal is at the dinner table and throws Fido a tidbit of roast beef as Fido patiently waits by the table, the human pal does not think of the roast beef as “dog food”. Yet Fido does. When the grocery bags are on the counter, just in from the store, and get unloaded, Fido does not think much about the bag of dry dog food but smells all the other stuff that attracted the human’s eye and nose. Your dog, aridog, is likely a prior human in the last incarnation. He or she came back to this life in this incarnation as a dog at their own choice. Saint Peter asked the question and they chose life in America as a dog. But if you are bad in this go-round you will not get to come back as a dog. If you are real bad you might come back as a dog in Morocco and be hanging by your feet in some notion of a grocery store as humans size you up. Their notion of “dog food” is different than the notion of those two words in America. So feed your dog right. If you don’t you will have some explaining to do to Saint Peter when you get your interview at the Holy Gates.
Mongols like free press to yak about yaks. Not Kayakking. When we prosecute reporters, only use good looking women to prosecute. Call them prosecuties. if convicted, send convict to herd sheep. So they can escape and go on the lamb.
LaserDLiquidator
The Koch Brothers are like Hedge funders giving to both sides. Obama has no Idea what he is doing since he is probably reading Daily Kos or Mother Jones
***Correction: A headline on an earlier version of this story incorrectly **suggested that the money would all be spent on the 2016 elections.The $889 million budget includes financing not just for politically active groups, but also for free-market think tanks, foundations and universities. It has been corrected.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/koch-backed-network-aims-to-spend-nearly-1-billion-on-2016-elections/2015/01/26/77a44654-a513-11e4-a06b-9df2002b86a0_story.html
These men know what they are doing. It is too bad that you don’t look up their charities. Would you look If I gave you a Mother Jones link
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/11/koch-brothers-web-influence
oooooooo a web of influence – spidery lolol
I think that the most interesting and crucial “Free Press” or First Amendment issue is the Snowden controversy. This couples in with blogging and protection of our rights to express ourselves by word on the internet. Free Press and internet blogging are both important, both protected by the “prongs” of the First Amendment. The Prongs intermingle. Not like Christian Mingle and have nothing to do with that Prong about religion. Or little to do.
The right to free expression, coupled with the right to assemble (we assemble on the blog we assemble on the square in front of the Capital), the right to petition our government for redress of grievances. Jeff Greenwald is a former lawyer who is a journalist. Snowden is someone who is petitioning his government for redress of grievances. People assemble on the internet to hear the story of government abuse of your privacy rights. Snowden and Greenwald talk to you and they seek our government to redress these grievances. Our Executive Branch is wrong to prosecute Snowden. Obama is wrong. The capitalist media like NBC has some schmuck named Chuck Todd who called Snowden a “traitor”. He is worse than the self aggrandizing liar Bri Bri Williams. Someone in Congress needs to inquire into the prosecution of Snowden. The charges against him can be found on Google. There was an American some years back who warned of us some bad people who wore Redcoats. “The British are coming!” He was right. The King and his scoundrals called all those who opposed their tyranny “traitors”. We have a dog in the docpac who just had puppies. One is named Snowden and one is named Jeffrey and one is named Paul Revere. I hope they grow up in a free country.
congratulations supporters of the wisest president this universe has ever seen, as made abundantly clear by his every action and word!
Paul C and Nick,
We’re farther down the rabbit hole than either of you can imagine.
Here’s some interesting insight…
https://twitter.com/xor/status/564356757007261696
Max-1 – I saw that report and immediately went to check to make sure that none of my TVs were Samsungs. 🙂
Mr. Turley, you’re too kind!
You made me LOL on that one! 🙂
Dan Schwartz. Interesting comment. Our culture loves lists. Maybe the list makers have an agenda? I look forward to a rebuttal from a Canadian[s], including, but hopefully not limited to, Isaac. I know we have many Canadian readers. And, maybe w/ PC, speech codes, blasphemy laws, etc. spreading like measles, there are no truly free press countries anymore. Thanks liberals.
Nick – speaking of free press they are going after control of the internet and websites with this Net Neutrality thing. This is part of the social justice movement. I saw a lot of this on social justice sites when Obama was first running. Now he is going for it.
CBC journalist Neil Macdonald writes the following on the Mark Steyn prosecution:
Professor Turley, I find it highly offensive that Canada is listed as having the 8th most free press, after Mark Steyn was prosecuted in 2007-8 for “hate speech” by their “human rights commission” in a kangaroo court. Here’s CBC’s report:
Free speech, eh? Why is Canada prosecuting Mark Steyn?
Dan Schwartz – considering the number of reporters who are in the tank for the administration combined with the number of reporters who have been suppressed, I think the US is right where they should be currently. Canada has fewer reporters to suppress.
Having said that, all lists are made with certain criteria in mind. If you set the criteria correctly, you could make the US no. 1 and Canada tied or at least no. 2.
Our politicians are only as honest as we require them to be.
Obama keeps acting this way because his enablers help him do so by making excuses.
Isn’t Change wonderful?
Obama has added more debt than all of the previous presidents in our entire history, combined.
But people keep giving him a pass . . .
Ha Ha…. Inga (snark’ly) brings upon U.S. – the Walker POTUS (or would it be better to be a POTUS Walker)!
Being that we are going straight out the window of Democracy (as the Koch’s helped Walker get $30 million – out of state funds included – to defeat his million signature for recall battles) – let’s not stop with a NO college Walker..
Why not just toss a monkey out of a plane – and who ever is grabbed by the tree flighter 1st – gets the POTUS bid.
——-
It could be someone from the REAL street. Being that Detroit has already gone the bankruptcy route (and is still seeing citizens denied water rights in MI.) – let’s get to the REAL street candidates.
“I can’s bomba d’em dea’r eye’rack’ees… Just let me at the buttons.
I’m good with video planes – just da’h same as droon’s”
And then we can fire all those mudder’s who can’t do chhiatt…
I’s be like fake haired Trump.
You fired
You fired
and you fired
— and you, you and you fired.
Save bunches of monies on dang politicindian’s
and dens we can all go have what they use to always has
a Free Lunch!
Scott Walker for President! LOL….
“You’re dead to me!!”… chuckling….
Damn, Isaac. I give you a shout out and you go all squawking parrot, “Koch Bros., Koch Bros.” You need to be deprogrammed like a Moonie.