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Re: F6 post# 270842

Friday, 07/07/2017 7:48:56 AM

Friday, July 07, 2017 7:48:56 AM

Patriotism in the age of Donald Trump

AM Joy
7/1/17

Joy Reid's panel discusses the importance of July 4th and how we express patriotism under the Trump presidency. Duration: 12:43

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/patriotism-in-the-age-of-donald-trump-981429315507

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The quest for Clinton email with Russian help

AM Joy
7/1/17

The Wall Street Journal reports that a GOP operative sought Hillary Clinton emails from hackers and implied a connection to Mike Flynn. [With Malcolm Nance.] Duration: 12:13

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/the-quest-for-clinton-email-with-russian-help-981427267800

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Backlash grows after Trump’s Twitter attack

AM Joy
7/1/17

Donald Trump’s gendered attack against a cable news host again raised questions about his treatment of women. Duration: 8:25

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/backlash-grows-after-trump-s-twitter-attack-981426243897

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Healthcare: Repeal and delay?

AM Joy
7/1/17

President Trump endorsed a Republican senator’s plan to repeal Obamacare first, and replace it later. What that could mean for millions of Americans. Duration: 15:39

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/healthcare-repeal-and-delay-981429315837

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Who is Jay Sekulow?

AM Joy
7/1/17

Jay Sekulow is Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and has been making the rounds on different news outlets, but there may be something you don’t know about him and his businesses. Duration: 9:47

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/who-is-jay-sekulow-981429315988

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Does the DNC overlook its most loyal voters?

AM Joy
7/1/17

Earlier in the week Joy Reid interviewed DNC Chairmen Tom Perez to get his response to the letter urging the DNC to put more black women in leadership positions. A panel joins Joy to discuss. Duration: 9:24

©2017 NBCNews.com

http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/does-the-dnc-overlook-its-most-loyal-voters-981431875691

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Obama Warns Against ‘Aggressive’ Nationalism, ‘Increased Resentment’

July 1, 2017
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obama-warns-against-nationalism-intolerance [with comments]

Obama Rues ‘Temporary Abscence of American Leadership’ on Climate Change

Former President Barack Obama speaking Saturday in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, at the end of a 10-day visit to the country.
JULY 1, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/01/world/asia/obama-indonesia-climate-change.html

Obama Warns Against an 'Aggressive Kind of Nationalism'
Jul 2, 2017
http://time.com/4843080/obama-warns-against-aggressive-nationalism/ [with embedded video]

Obama calls for tolerance and unity in childhood home Indonesia
Barack Obama called for tolerance and respect in his childhood home of Indonesia Saturday, amid rising religious tensions in the country where the former US president spent four years as a boy.
July 02, 2017
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/aec/30319699

Obama urges end to division in childhood home Indonesia
July 2, 2017
http://religionnews.com/2017/07/02/obama-urges-end-to-division-in-childhood-home-indonesia/ [no comments yet]

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EPIC Donald Trump vs Barack Obama Presidential Basketball Battle

Published on Jun 24, 2017 by Shady00018 [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC12iVP0lVgYG3z6PzCcS_Sg / https://www.youtube.com/user/Shady00018 , https://www.youtube.com/user/Shady00018/videos ]

Donald Trump vs Barack Obama go head to head NBA 2K17 STYLE!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5in1hy_TBk [with comments]

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WATCH FULL EVENT: President Donald Trump Speaks at Celebrate Freedom Concert: Fourth of July Independence Day

Streamed live on Jul 1, 2017 by Golden State Times [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWXPkK02j6MHW-4xCJzgMuw , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWXPkK02j6MHW-4xCJzgMuw/videos ]

President Donald Trump will make remarks honoring veterans at a Kennedy Center event hosted by an evangelical megachurch.

EVENT STARTS AT 1:47:50
LOUIE GOHMERT'S INVEIGHINGS START AT 2:01:15
PASTOR JEFFRESS'S APOPLECTICS START AT 2:33:20
PRESIDENT TRUMP'S PERFORMANCE STARTS AT 2:38:40

President Donald J. Trump to Join Pastor Robert Jeffress in Honoring Veterans at the Kennedy Center for the ‘Celebrate Freedom’ Concert This Saturday.

Trump is spending the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, but plans to travel back to Washington on Saturday night for the "Celebrate Freedom Rally" at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Evangelical megachurch First Baptist Dallas is sponsoring the event, along with Salem Media Group. First Baptist Pastor Robert Jeffress was a strong backer of Trump.

A news release says that Trump will: "deliver a powerful address honoring our veterans, hundreds of whom will be coming from D.C. area to attend the event, including wounded warriors who are patients at the Walter Reed Medical Center."

[no official transcript (yet) available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-and-remarks , https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-and-releases , or https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings ]

‘I’m President and They’re Not’: Trump Attacks Media at Faith Rally

President Trump spoke Saturday at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.
JULY 1, 2017
WASHINGTON — President Trump used the first part of his holiday weekend getaway to issue more denunciations of the news media, using a celebration of American veterans and freedom at an evening rally to thunder that he would not allow the “fake” media to stop his agenda.
Speaking to raucous supporters at a faith rally at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington Saturday night, Mr. Trump brought the crowd to its feet by condemning news organizations.
“The fake media is trying to silence us,” Mr. Trump told the crowd at the concert hall, after returning to Washington briefly from his weekend getaway at his golf club in New Jersey. “But we will not let them. Because the people know the truth. The fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House. But I’m president and they’re not.”
On Sunday, Mr. Trump continued his attacks on the media. He posted on Twitter an old video clip of him at a World Wrestling Entertainment event in which he appears to be pummeling his opponent, who has the CNN logo superimposed on his head. Leaving his opponent on the ground in the video, Mr. Trump walks away.

#FraudNewsCNN #FNN
8:21 AM - 2 Jul 2017
[ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/881503147168071680 (with non-YouTube version of the video embedded, and {over 140,000} comments), an unofficial YouTube for the moment at least at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19QctAWHOZw (with comments), others for the moment at least at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_sEDtVUNCs (no comments yet), and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4WHUr1TcJM (with comment)]
CNN, in response, posted a statement that said in part, “It is a sad day when the president of the United States encourages violence against reporters.”

[ https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/881521068078505985 (with comments)]
In his Saturday night speech, Mr. Trump praised American veterans and promised to defend religious liberty in America. Earlier in the day, the president also posted on Twitter [ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/881271748280365056 ] about the fake media [ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/881271809433374721 ] and accused secretaries of state from around the country of trying to hide something from a panel investigating widespread voter fraud that experts say never happened.
In a Twitter message [ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/881137079958241280 ] on Saturday morning, Mr. Trump said that “numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?”
Mr. Trump set up the Presidential Advisory Commission on Voter Integrity to find evidence for his debunked claim that millions of votes were cast illegally in the 2016 presidential election. On Wednesday, the group sent a letter to all 50 secretaries of state asking for personal data about the nation’s 200 million voters.
The response from many of the state voting officials [ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/30/us/politics/kris-kobach-states-voter-fraud-data.html ] was a resounding “no.” In Mississippi, the secretary of state, Delbert Hosemann [ https://www.sos.ms.gov/About/Pages/Press-Release.aspx?pr=800 ], a Republican, said: “My reply would be: They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico.”
Mr. Trump’s tweet suggests that he is not happy with those responses, but it is unclear what he can do about them. The commission chairman told news organizations on Friday that it was up to each state to decide what information to share with the panel.
The president started his Saturday tweet storm on a positive note, offering a “Happy Canada Day [ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/881131368520056832 ]” to the people of that country and to his “new found friend” Justin Trudeau, the prime minister.
But his tone quickly turned negative.
He continued his attack on Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, the hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” two days after saying on Twitter that Ms. Brzezinski had been “bleeding badly from a face-lift” during a social event last year.
On Saturday, he added [ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/881140479454310401 ]: “Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses. Too bad!”
Taking note of MSNBC’s decision to end the new show hosted by Greta Van Susteren [ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/29/business/media/greta-van-susteren-leaving-msnbc-after-only-six-months.html ], the former Fox News anchor, Mr. Trump asserted [ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/881135264441257984 ] that she “was let go by her out of control bosses at @NBC & @Comcast because she refused to go along w/ ‘Trump hate!’”
In fact, Ms. Susteren’s show, “For the Record,” had struggled with very low ratings since she arrived at the network about six months ago.
Mr. Trump also continued his blistering criticism of CNN.
The president wrote [ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/881138485905772549 ]: “I am extremely pleased to see that @CNN has finally been exposed as #FakeNews and garbage journalism. It’s about time!”
The president may have been referring to the latest hidden camera video produced by James O’Keefe, the right-wing activist. The video appears to show a producer for CNN’s “New Day” program calling Mr. Trump “a clown” and “crazy,” among other things. The producer also appears to say American voters are “stupid.”
Mr. O’Keefe’s previous videos have been found to be selectively edited and designed to disparage his subjects.
A spokesman for CNN declined to comment.
Mr. Trump and his family are spending several days at his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. He returned to Washington briefly on Saturday night to deliver remarks at the “Celebrate Freedom” rally [ http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/event/RRXAS ] on behalf of veterans at the Kennedy Center.
At the concert hall, Mr. Trump stood in front of a large American flag and soaked up the adoration of a crowd of largely evangelical supporters who roared their approval of his promise to defend religious liberty, fight entrenched interests, win battles against terrorists and say “Merry Christmas” again.
“Above all else, we know this: In America, we don’t worship government. We worship God,” Mr. Trump said, bringing the crowd to its feet again.
[...]
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/01/us/politics/trump-tweets-stoke-voter-fraud-claim-and-attack-news-media.html [with the video embedded in the embedded Trump tweet]

'Modern Day Presidential': Trump Defends Social Media Use
Trump also vented at familiar foes: the cable television station CNN and MSNBC's "Morning Joe" co-hosts, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski
Jul 1, 2017 Updated Jul 2, 2017
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/politics/Trump-Again-Attack-Media-in-Morning-Tweets-431969613.html [no comments yet]

Bizarre. Absurd. Ridiculous. Embarrassing. Trump.
By Kathleen Parker
July 4, 2017
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bizarre-absurd-ridiculous-embarrassing-trump/2017/07/04/f004b6dc-6033-11e7-a4f7-af34fc1d9d39_story.html [with embedded video, and comments]

Trump's Celebration of an Exclusionary Vision of Freedom

The president appeared at the Kennedy Center with Robert Jeffress—an evangelical leader with whom he’s bound by a shared antipathy to Muslims.
Jul 3, 2017
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/07/trumps-celebration-of-an-exclusionary-vision-of-freedom/532575/ [with comments]

Trump's anti-CNN tweet originated from Reddit’s largest right-wing extremist forum

Regardless of his intentions, Trump’s tweet aligned him with violent hate speech.
Jul 3, 2017 Updated Jul 3, 2017
[...]
Though the tweet itself may not have explicitly condoned violence, and can be read as hyperbolic, it was read by some as connective tissue joining Trump to his alt-right supporters — and the harassment they showered on journalists like freelance writer Jared Yates Sexton. Sexton, who was one of the first people to unveil the tweet’s origins, was showered with online abuse, as he detailed on Twitter [ https://twitter.com/jysexton/status/881861064027246593 ].
“I received numerous threats. I was told people wanted to shoot, strangle me, hang me, throw me out of a helicopter,” Sexton wrote, describing the alt-right’s reaction to his screencapping of HanAssholeSolo [the original source]’s undoctored racial slurs. “Now [my] articles are showing up on Neo-Nazi websites, there are videos spliced with Goebbels telling me not to test his patience.”
[...]
https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/7/3/15913966/trump-cnn-wrestling-tweet-the-donald-origins [with embedded videos]

A Reddit user who wrote about stabbing Muslims is claiming credit for Trump’s CNN video
July 2, 2017
The user whose screen name is a vulgar corruption of “Han Solo” spent about a year on Reddit before attaining stardom, courtesy of a share from President Trump.
[...]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2017/07/02/a-reddit-user-who-wrote-about-stabbing-muslims-is-claiming-credit-for-trumps-cnn-video/ [with embedded video, and comments]

The Reddit user behind Trump’s CNN meme apologized. But #CNNBlackmail is the story taking hold.
July 5, 2017
The Reddit user said he never intended his anti-CNN meme — you know, the one tweeted by President Trump in which the now-president beats up CNN in a wrestling match — to become a call for violence against journalists.
“I am not the person that the media portrays me to be in real life,” user HanA—holeSolo wrote in an apology, posted to the popular pro-Trump r/The_Donald subreddit Tuesday. “I was trolling and posting things to get a reaction … and never meant any of the hateful things I said in those posts.”
The apology, which has since been deleted along with the user’s entire Reddit account, ended with a call for peace: “This is one individual that you will not see posting hurtful or hateful things in jest online. This is my last post from this account and I wanted to do it on a positive note and hopefully it will heal the controversy that this all caused.”
It didn’t.
#CNNBlackmail was the top trending Twitter topic Wednesday morning, thanks to the efforts of a furious Trump Internet, who had concluded that the user’s apology was forced by a “threat” from CNN. Their evidence? A story CNN itself published [ http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/04/politics/kfile-reddit-user-trump-tweet/index.html ], detailing its attempts to contact and identify the anonymous Reddit user ahead of their apology, whose offensive posting history suddenly became part of a national news story.
[...]
Others called for a very personal form of revenge against CNN, and Kaczynski specifically. A link to a pastebin page that appeared to contain the personal identifying information of Kaczynski, some of his family members and his colleagues circulated on 4chan Wednesday morning. And the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer website called for even more. A popular post called for CNN employees to quit their jobs and denounce the network, or face consequences if they didn’t:
“We are going to track down your parents.
We are going to track down your siblings.
We are going to track down your spouses.
We are going to track down your children. Because hey, that’s what you guys get to do, right? We’re going to see how you like it when our reporters are hunting down your children.”
It’s a particularly threatening version of an inversion that is common on the Internet today: keep reporting on the Trump Internet, and the Trump Internet will decide it’s “reporting” on you. And many mainstream outlets are still struggling to contend with it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2017/07/05/the-reddit-user-behind-trumps-cnn-meme-apologized-but-cnnblackmail-is-the-story-taking-hold/ [with comments]

Analysis // Trump's Blood and Gore Attacks on the Media Could Star in Der Sturmer
The millions of Americans who lap up his bluster are just as depressing as the cynical Republicans who won't disown him
• WATCH // Trump just tweeted a video of himself literally beating up CNN
http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/1.799016
• Explained // Donald Trump threatening Syria directly contradicts his campaign promises
http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/1.798573
• A brief history of 'Lügenpresse,' the Nazi-era predecessor to Trump's 'fake news'
http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/1.772836
Jul 02, 2017
http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-1.799088 [with embedded video; no comments yet]

Christo-fascist/Christo-fascism

(linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=128832226 and preceding and following;
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=131488509 and preceding (and any future following);
earlier this string, http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=131914404 and preceding and following,
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=132042257 and preceding and following,
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=132278454 and preceding and following;
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=131914423 and preceding (and any future following);
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=132078524 and preceding and following

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVBpMC6HxBc [with comments] [also, Trump's performance only, at e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_CbS5Abs3w (with comments)] [and see also in particular (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=3967329 and preceding and following, http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=54833454 and preceding and following]

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Independent Press Is Under Siege as Freedom Rings

President Trump has made vicious personal attacks against journalists, and the White House has put limitations on the daily press briefing.
Doug Mills/The New York Times

By Jim Rutenberg
JULY 2, 2017

Happy Birthday, America, I guess.

You’re old enough to know that you can’t always have a feel-good birthday. And let’s face it: This Fourth of July just isn’t going to be one of them.

How could it be when one of the pillars of our 241-year-old republic — the First Amendment — is under near-daily assault from the highest levels of the government?

When the president of the United States makes viciously personal attacks [ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/29/business/media/trump-mika-brzezinski-facelift.html ] against journalists — and then doubles down over the weekend by posting a video on Twitter showing himself tackling and beating a figure with a CNN logo superimposed on his head? (Every time you think he’s reached the limit ...)

[Trump's tweet, https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/881503147168071680 (with {over 140,000} comments), with the WWE video doctored to show him attacking CNN, included in the "‘I’m President and They’re Not’: Trump Attacks Media at Faith Rally" article excerpted in the item just above, embedded]

How could it be when the president lashes out [ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/880049704620494848 ] at The Washington Post by making a veiled threat against the business interests of its owner, Jeff Bezos, suggesting that his other company, Amazon, is a tax avoider [ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/28/business/trump-internet-tax-amazon.html ]?

(Where have we seen that sort of thing before [ https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21699285-rbc-was-reliable-even-handed-aggressive-and-popular-too-popular-russia-muzzles-its-best ] — Russia maybe?)

Or when the White House plays so many games [ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/23/business/media/white-house-correspondents-unhappy-with-limits-on-news-briefings.html ] with its press briefings, taking them off camera and placing conditions on how and when they can run — or, in the case of its rare, unrestricted live briefings, using them to falsely accuse the news media of “dishonesty [ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/06/27/white-house-spokeswoman-unloads-on-media-over-cnn-retraction/ ]”?

For those who cherish a robust free press, it’s hard to feel much like partying after witnessing how some cheered Representative Greg Gianforte, Republican of Montana, for body slamming [ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/24/greg-gianforte-bodyslams-reporter-ben-jacobs-montana ] a reporter for The Guardian, Ben Jacobs. His sin: asking unwelcome questions.

The “he had it coming [ https://twitter.com/BrentBozell/status/867727265966301184 ]” camp’s celebration of the violence against a reporter seemed out of step with Mr. Gianforte’s own response. He ultimately apologized [ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/07/us/greg-gianforte-montana-republican-body-slams-reporter-apology.html ], pleaded guilty to assault and pledged a $50,000 donation to the Committee to Protect Journalists [ https://cpj.org/ ].

Then again, it wasn’t out of step with President Trump, whose weekend tweet appeared to promote violence against CNN — which, some argued, violated Twitter’s harassment policies [ https://twitter.com/search?q=harassment&src=typd ] — certainly undercut Mr. Gianforte’s message of contrition.

Yes, America, all of the attacks against something so central to your identity must have you in quite the birthday funk.

The likely reaction in anti-press precincts to a column like this one will be that mainstream journalists think they’re above reproach, which is nonsense.

When a real news organization makes a mistake, it takes action, as CNN recently did when it retracted an article [ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2017/06/27/the-cnn-retraction-and-the-danger-of-relying-on-one-anonymous-source/ ] about the Russia investigation, saying the article had not received the proper vetting. Three people lost their jobs [ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/26/business/3-cnn-journalists-resign-after-retracted-story-on-trump-ally.html ].

The Trump administration torqued it into supposed proof that CNN and much of the rest of the news media — including The New York Times and The Washington Post [ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/879682547235651584 ] — are “fake news.”

It was a powerful reminder to journalists everywhere to take the extra time to get it right, to make sure that the processes that ensure editorial quality and accuracy remain intact and strong.

The stakes are higher now, as the anti-press sentiment veers into calls for more action against journalists, if not against journalism itself.

Look no further than the new National Rifle Association advertisement [ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/29/us/nra-ad-trump-protests.html ]. In it, the conservative radio and television star Dana Loesch angrily describes how “they” — whoever they are — “use their media to assassinate real news,” contributing to a “violence of lies” that needs to be combated with “the clenched fist of truth.”

Given that the ad was for a pro-gun group, this sort of thing “tends toward incitement,” Charles P. Pierce wrote [ http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a56018/nra-recruitment-video/ ] in Esquire. (Added context: The N.R.A. chief Wayne LaPierre recently called “academic elites, political elites and media elites” America’s “greatest domestic threats.”)

The Fox News host Sean Hannity has urged [ http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/333552-hannity-calls-for-white-house-control-of-media-at-press-briefings ] the Trump administration to force reporters to submit written requests in advance of the daily White House press briefing, which, he said, should be narrowly tailored to specific topics the administration wants to talk about.

Mr. Hannity’s good buddy Newt Gingrich went one better [ http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/333244-gingrich-urges-trump-close-down-the-press-room ], suggesting that administration officials fully close the briefing room to the news media, which he has called “a danger to the country [ http://www.mediaite.com/online/gingrich-trump-needs-to-close-white-house-press-room-because-the-media-is-corrupt/ ] right now.”

What’s most extraordinary in all of this is how many people calling for curtailments on the free press are such professed “constitutionalists” and admirers of the founders.

The founders didn’t view the press as particularly enlightened, and from the earliest days of the republic it certainly wasn’t. (To wit, a passage in The Aurora [ https://books.google.com/books?id=vlAyBZgL97gC&pg=PA210&lpg=PA210&dq=%22the+source+of+all+the+misfortunes+of+our+country%22+and+aurora&source=bl&ots=vnFhwnKGS7&sig=SrALdXHL8mut7jAttUD14cThGBo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiElcGD8urUAhVKzIMKHcDhAH0Q6AEIMDAF#v=onepage&q=%22the%20source%20of%20all%20the%20misfortunes%20of%20our%20country%22%20and%20aurora&f=false ], an early publication, described George Washington as “the source of all the misfortunes of our country.”)

But they drafted the founding documents to enshrine press freedom for good reason. As the Stanford University history professor Jack Rakove [ https://history.stanford.edu/people/jack-rakove ] said in an interview last week, James Madison was most concerned about a misinformed public’s acting on misplaced passions, and saw the press as an antidote. Were he alive now, Mr. Rakove said, “Madison would be worried by the idea of government whipping up or exploiting” what he called “badly formed passions.”

Sure, there were the occasional stumbles, like the short-lived Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 [ http://www.crf-usa.org/america-responds-to-terrorism/the-alien-and-sedition-acts.html ], which banned “false, scandalous and malicious writing” about the government, but they led to stronger free speech protections.

So this, our 241st birthday, seems just the time to invite some of our forebears to remind us — including those at the top of the government — why a free press is so important.

“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.” — Benjamin Franklin, 1722

“There is nothing so fretting and vexatious, nothing so justly terrible to tyrants, and their tools and abettors, as a free press.” — Samuel Adams, 1768

“The freedom of speech may be taken away — and, dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the slaughter.” — George Washington, to officers of the Army, 1783

“Nothing could be more irrational than to give the people power, and to withhold from them information without which power is abused. A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps both.” — James Madison, 1822

“There is a terrific disadvantage not having the abrasive quality of the press applied to you daily, to an administration. Even though we never like it, and even though we wish they didn’t write it, and even though we disapprove, there still isn’t any doubt that we couldn’t do the job at all in a free society without a very, very active press.” — John F. Kennedy, 1962

“Since the founding of this nation, freedom of the press has been a fundamental tenet of American life. There is no more essential ingredient than a free, strong and independent press to our continued success in what the founding fathers called our ‘noble experiment’ in self-government.’” — Ronald Reagan, 1983

“Power can be very addictive, and it can be corrosive. And it’s important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power, whether it be here or elsewhere.” — George W. Bush, 2017

Jaclyn Peiser contributed reporting.

© 2017 The New York Times Company

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/02/business/media/independent-press-is-under-siege-as-freedom-rings.html [with comments] [id.]

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CNN Responds to Trump’s Tweet - The Feed

Published on Jul 3, 2017 by SBS VICELAND [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTILfqEQUVaVKPkny8QRE0w / https://www.youtube.com/user/SBS2Australia , https://www.youtube.com/user/SBS2Australia/videos ]

My name is CNN (aka Mark Humphries) and I was assaulted by an angry orange man (aka the President of the United States).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QotA7KHb7mo [with comments] [id.]

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More Americans trust CNN than they do Donald Trump

Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07

"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790

F6

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