USA 45^th in press freedom

Reporters Without Borders says that the United States has dropped to 45^th in the world based on press freedom.

Our Founding Fathers made free speech and a free press the First Amendment because they considered it so important. More important, Thomas Jefferson said, than elected officials.

Relaxing of rules to prevent fewer companies from controlling more and more of the media have resulted in 8 companies owning 1,100 newspapers in America.

Sinclair has all of its 170 local stations deliver verbatim the same "news" item on the same day with a pro-Trump slant.

President Trump makes "the enemy of the people" his regular target, particularly bastions of journalism like the New York Times and Washington Post.

France-based Reporters Without Borders has been inundated with awards for its work --  from Germany to Poland to Spain to Arab American Institute Foundation to Taiwan Foundation for Democracy and even got an international Emmy from the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

RWB’s list of the top countries when it comes to press freedom are:

1.Norway. 2. Sweden. 3. Netherlands. 4. Finland. 5. Switzerland. 6. Jamaica. 7. Belgium. 8. New Zealand. 9. Denmark. 10. Costa Rica.

North Korea is last on the list. Syria is 4^th, China 5^th and Cuban 9^th.

The Post’s new tocsin

The Washington Post’s new motto, under its masthead:

“Democracy dies in darkness.”

With Trump’s full-court suppress the press tactics, it’s a timely warning.

Thomas Jefferson put it bluntly:

"The press [is] the only tocsin of a nation. [When it] is completely silenced... all means of a general effort [are] taken away." 

For those who don’t know, tocsin is a warning bell.

When a leader calls a free press “the enemy of the people,” it’s take to head for the ramparts of public opinion and head off the dictatorship.

Hitler hated a free press. Stalin hated a free press. South American dictators hated a free press. Trump is in some frightening company.

To read the article about the Washington Post added its tocsin slogan, click on the-washington-posts-dark-new-motto-is-pure-branding-genius