On Saturday, Feb. 25, The Signal published a guest column by Ron Bischoff entitled “Learning to evaluate the ‘fake news.’” In it he noted the calls from several people and groups to somehow control the flow of news – “curate” it, according to Obama – in order to somehow “control” the tsunami of information (including so-called “fake news”) to which people have access.
All this in the interest of making it easier for people to evaluate whether their information is “real” or not, of course.
In his column Ron made a case for why that was a terrible idea.
Well said, Ron.
For those of us old enough to remember it, this current press jihad against a non-Dem president isn’t anything new. We saw the same thing when Reagan was a candidate and then president: years of hysterical hyperbole predicting the literal end of the world in a flash of nuclear fireballs as the “actor” and “cowboy” took the reins of power.
Instead, he brought about the peaceful end of the Soviet empire.
Trump is now doing the same thing Reagan did. He’s ignoring the Establishment press and taking his message directly to the American people. Naturally, just as in the Reagan era, the press loathes him for it, as well as for his “heretical” policies.
But now we’re in the internet age and information flows much more freely. The Establishment press is no longer the gatekeeper of information, and they simply can’t have that!
Hence the calls for “curation,” which is just another word for “censorship.”
Orwell’s “1984” paints a grim picture of what happens when the government controls what information the citizenry is given. That’s not a road we want to travel.
Further, the very purpose of the First Amendment guarantee of a free press is to ensure that the people have full and free access to all the information out there – especially that which might be unpopular or controversial.
After all, popular ideas don’t need such protection, do they?
Brian Baker is a Saugus resident.