Tuesday, April 08, 2003

Separation of Media and State! Separation of Media (Targeting) and War!

I will be commenting on this shortly. In a nutshell, we need to support media diversity, and remove any ties between media and government. The lies have to stop, and honest dialogue resume. The appearance of impropriety is bad enough.

National sunshine laws, and a constitutional amendment for the Freedom of Information is needed. The Act needs to be strengthened. Informed consent must be encouraged. Self-interest is our economic lifeblood, so along with it we need ethics and accountability mechanisms that work. Along with those, we need transparency, a window for the sun to shine through, so we can put the nagging conspiracies and distrust to bed. It does America no good, and keeps us from getting together on the most important challenges that face us today.

And last, the media should never be a target of war. Especially this one. Iraq is a weak power, and if we can't take them out without bombing media and doing other questionable targeting, then we should start taking names and asking questions about who's running things.

At the very least, we have targeted Iraqi TV and media, so don't give me the "it's an accident or in the crossfire mumbo jumbo". And regardless of your stance on this last point, focus on the Freedom of Information, sunshine nationwide, and poisonous effect of our media and conspiracy thought.