This Is How The End Of Democracy Is Hastened

(Updated below) (Update II) (Update III) (Update IV) (Update V)

Bad enough that the mainstream/corporate media has largely abandoned its vocation of reporting facts and keeping checks on the Powers-That-Be, opting instead for a subservient stenographing and perpetually supporting/defending role of the same Powers-That-Be, now would-be authoritarians are seeking to legislate against whatever remains of true journalism - i.e. exposing the truth of things.

In today's earlier post, I brought attention to the following (emphasis added):

Lieberman, GOP team up for anti-WikiLeaks bill

Amid calls in the US Congress to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a group of senators on Thursday unveiled a bill to make it easier to target the self-described whistleblowing website.

The legislation, crafted by Republican Senators John Ensign and Scott Brown as well as Independent Senator Joe Lieberman, would make it illegal to publish the names of informants serving the US military and intelligence community.

It was not immediately clear whether the new rule would also apply to traditional US media.

Ensign accused Assange of "creating a hit list for our enemies" by making public the names of intelligence assets in a bid "to hinder our war efforts" and stressed: "WikiLeaks is not a whistleblower website and Assange is not a journalist."

"Our government must make it clear that revealing the identities of these individuals will not be tolerated," said Lieberman, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

"Our foreign representatives, allies, and intelligence sources must have the clear assurance that their lives will not be endangered by those with opposing agendas, whether they are Americans or not," he added.

(...) US officials have yet to document any fatalities linked to the disclosures.

Brown said the legislation, which would amend the US Espionage Act aimed at punishing the disclosure of secret information, would give US authorities "a tool to prevent something like this from happening again."

Read this again: the proposed bill "would make it illegal to publish the names of informants serving the US military and intelligence community".

So - no more whistleblowing (à la WikiLeaks).

And no more blogging and/or reporting about the detailed revelations brought forth by such whistleblowing activities.

Furthermore - the no-naming of "informants serving the US military and intelligence community" will perpetuate the already prevailing abuses of "anonymous" sources and quotes, abuses perpetrated by mainstream/corporate media stenographers in order to subserviently pass on propaganda from government agencies and the government itself.

Ergo: no more fact or truth reporting in any way whatsoever.

That Lieberman and Co. never called for such a bill following the outing of Valerie Plame not only speaks loudly of the self-serving hypocritical mendacity at work here on their part (because after all the Roves and Cheneys and subservient collaborating stenographers whom worked together in outing the CIA secret operative had to be protected/defended/excused since they represented/constituted Teh Establishment), but the very proposal of such a bill constitutes a clear, immediate and present danger to what is left of journalistic freedom.

Think about it:

- First, the mainstream/corporate media largely abdicates it raison d'être, i.e. reporting facts, the truth and keeping checks on the Powers-That-Be;

- Second, corporations collude with politicians not only to make policy, but to facilitate increased surveillance of citizens (typically without warrants - one more example here), in addition to being accomplices in stifling free speech (including on the internet);

- And third, now we have legislation to kill whatever remains of free journalism out there, in the world, including on the internet.

Case in point: let's not forget that Raw Story, The New York Times, the UK Guardian, Der Spiegel, Globe and Mail, etc. published the same info on their sites as WikiLeaks, in order to spread the information, facts and truth (i.e. what is still called reporting, journalism). Would such a bill apply to any news outlet? If so, then any leaked information that is published online clandestinally will nevermore be reported by any news outlet - because of this bill.

In other words: you not only kill the initial leaking act, you make sure that any reporting of the information leaked is likewise killed.

Ergo: you ensure to keep the public ignorant through the rule of law.

This is how the end of democracy is hastened - especially since the end has already well begun.


Update: as yet another note added in proof - Library of Congress is latest government institution to block WikiLeaks. We're talking about the Library of Congress, here: "The Library's mission is to make its resources available and useful to the Congress and the American people and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations". Their excuse for blocking WikiLeaks? Read it and weep: "The Library decided to block WikiLeaks because applicable law obligates federal agencies to protect classified information. Unauthorized disclosures of classified documents do not alter the documents' classified status or automatically result in declassification of the documents". Hypocrisy, much? Now, do you still doubt that democracy is dying? Do you even care at all?

Update II: And here's yet another note added in proof - attacks on WikiLeaks are part of an attack on free speech, aided by the companies that make up the Web's backbone. So - once again: Welcome to your Corporatocratic Security Surveillance State.

Update III: Meanwhile ... White House tells all federal agencies to prohibit employees from WikiLeaks site. Ah yes - the land of the free, the defender of freedom and democracy, the champion of liberty ... no more.

Update IV (12/04/2010): The Corporatocracy keeps on relentlessly pummeling WikiLeaks - indeed, PayPal has dropped WikiLeaks' account for donations. Here's the dubious reason: "PayPal has permanently restricted the account used by WikiLeaks due to a violation of the PayPal Acceptable Use Policy, which states that our payment service cannot be used for any activities that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity". And never mind that while it is a crime to leak classified information, receiving and publishing it is not. So - welcome again to your Authoritarian Corporatocracy, eh?

Update V (12/04/2010): Of course, U.S. soldiers who go online to read about the WikiLeaks disclosures, or even simply read coverage of them in mainstream news sites, get a page warning them that they're about to break the law. Moreover, the same applies to Canadian soldiers and Defense staff - as per ordered by the assistant deputy minister for information management! And then, the State Department gives a stern warning to US citizens (emphasis added):

(...) would (the) State (Department) look unfavorably upon a prospective employee who had written about the leaked cables on Facebook? "To talk about current events is one thing," (State Department spokeswoman Nicole Thompson) said. "Would talking about it make you ineligible for a job at the State Department? No. But to go into detail, and propagate information that was illegally obtained — I don't think that's a good move for anyone. Not Julian Assange, not WikiLeaks, and not any U.S. citizen."

Go that, We The People? Look away, keep your head low, and continue on being pliable and easily controllable sheep. Q.E.D.