US now 53rd in World Press Freedom Index

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Sunday October 29, 2006 · 9:31 AM PST

2006/10/29 · 09:31

Well, it looks like all of the people here who have been decrying how sheep-like the Mainstream Media has been acting during the Bush administration have had their complaints legitimized. The US, under George Bush's watch, has fallen to 53rd in the World Press Freedom Index--alongside countries like Botswana and Tonga.

http://www.rsf.org/...

http://www.csmonitor.com/...

This is a pretty sad window into what is happening to our country. The question is, what can be done to turn things around again?

UPDATE: Excerpt from CSM: "The news media advocacy organization Reporters Without Borders released their fifth annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index this week, and it shows that the United States has dropped 9 places since last year, and is now ranked 53rd, alongside Botswana, Croatia and Tonga. The authors of the report say that the steady erosion of press freedom in countries like the US, France and Japan (two other countries that slipped significantly on the index) is "very alarming."" "The United States (53rd) has fallen nine places since last year, after being in 17th position in the first year of the Index, in 2002. Relations between the media and the Bush administration sharply deteriorated after the president used the pretext of "national security" to regard as suspicious any journalist who questioned his "war on terrorism." The zeal of federal courts which, unlike those in 33 US states, refuse to recognize the media's right not to reveal its sources, even threatens journalists whose investigations have no connection at all with terrorism."

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