German TV Snowden Interview

German TV Snowden Interview

Here is the link to the German TV interview with NSA “whistleblower” Edward Snowden.

As expressed by Jay Syrmopoulos of http://www.benswann.com, “this was treated as a major political event in both print and broadcast media, in Germany, and across much of the world.”
Ironically, US media has completely avoided this vital interview, and has made various (successful) attempts to pull any portion of it off of various search engines, specifically YouTube.

Syrmopoulos goes on to call this “another deliberate attempt to obfuscate the truth from the view of the American public… The attempt to bury this interview by the government/corporate symbiosis has extremely dark implications.”

Watch the interview for yourself, and make your own conclusions. 

Read more: http://benswann.com/media-blacks-out-new-snowden-interview-the-government-doesnt-want-you-to-see/#ixzz2sBOwzSrN 
Follow : @BenSwann_ on Twitter“

 

Note To Journalists, #2

Do not underestimate the power of the first amendment, and do not be ignorant to the constant battle against censorship by government and their facilities.

I believe freedom of the press as a right is slowly being stripped from not only journalists, but the American people in general. Too often than not, journalists are being put on trial for reporting stories that some deem to be “politically incorrect”, too controversial, offensive, or in my perspective, too real. Essentially, freedom of the press means that the government cannot control or block specific things from being published by the press. However, there are various loopholes for the government to validate these unconstitutional activities.  I believe the method behind this madness can be conveyed by the following quote by Thomas Jefferson, “The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep the waters pure.”

                For example, during the trial of accused WikiLeaks whistleblower Bradley Manning, journalists were being intimidated by military officers. As expressed by Trevor Timm on www.pressfreedomfoundation.org,  “reporters covering the trial were being intimidated by members of the military, who seemed to be surveilling what they were writing and doing on their computers…  armed military police continually peered over the reporters’ shoulders at their screens as they were trying to report, instructing them to close various windows they had open on their computers.”

                This type of government control is essentially the battle and the purpose of freedom of the press. Journalists serve the purpose of reporting the news, and with this comes a responsibility to present valid and truthful content. Many times this valid and truthful content may show negatives and flaws within our own government. To preserve the faith in “Big Brother”, any details that could negatively affect the view of the government become controversial and sometimes put on trial. With this type of control that is being implemented more and more, it leaves one to question the validity in the news being given, and brings forth the question of what details are being left out, and when.

                 “The most effectual engines for pacifying a nation are the public papers… A despotic government always keeps a kind of standing army of news writers who, without any regard to truth or to what should be like truth, invent and put into the papers whatever might serve the ministers. This suffices with the mass of the people who have no means of distinguishing the false from the true paragraphs of a newspaper.” –Thomas Jefferson

Note To Journalists, #1

For any story, you need sources. In journalism, I believe sources are of the utmost importance. The sources we use generate the validity (or invalidity) of our story, and then our story becomes a source for the public. The foundation of sources and “sourcing” is one of the key components of true and honest journalism. It is the journalist’s job to research and fact check all avenues of a story/topic, cover all ends of the spectrum and leave out no detail that is vital to the story’s coherency and accuracy.

            There is a broad range of sources journalists can use to produce a story. Whether it be a face-to-face interview with a person involved, or conducting one’s own research through texts and the internet.  However, if one does not check the validity of the resources in which they are receiving their content on a given subject, the legitimacy of their story becomes void. If this becomes a regular occurrence, soon these journalists and the companies they work for will slowly lose credibility and the trust of viewers/readers.

            It is essential for journalists to be extremely critical of any and all information they receive, analyzing and fact checking every source. I believe it is our job to decipher fact from fiction, valid from invalid, and present the most truthful content possible to the public. This is simply part of the job description.