A French-origin organization called
"Reporters Without Borders" (or RSB, to follow the French acronym) recently released its
"World Press Freedom Index." The measure calculates, in the venture's words,
"the negative impacts of conflicts on freedom of information and its protagonists." The index does not offer Americans much solace: The United States ranked #46 in RSB's roundup. In fairness, a number of the 45 countries above the USA, such as Andorra and Cape Verde, have marginal global gravitas. However, America's press freedom -- a bulwark of our nation's Constitution -- seems to have eroded, thus reducing respect for information freedom here and around the globe.
Naturally, the Snowden affair loomed large in RSB's unflattering evaluation. And overall, the Obama Administration's ruthless intimidation tactics against whistleblowers and leakers (though not against its own sanctioned purveyors of privileged information) lowered RSB's estimate of American press freedom.
Our nation ought to be ashamed by the RSB report. Liberals, in particular, should look in its collective political mirror. The American left has reluctantly criticized the Administration for its blunt attempt to muzzle bad news through punitive jail terms, intimidating enforcement tactics, and Mafia-like silence. In fairness, news organizations, including strange bedfellows such as Fox News and
The New York Times, have pushed back against 44's intent to silence those who attempt to illuminate his administration's darker corners. Alas, the champions of press freedom are diminishing in number and clout, while there is greater national comfort with corporate, political, and governmental secrecy.
PS. Thanks to the financial blog
zerohedge.com for bringing this story to its readers' attention.
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