The Message Is Clear
As the Christian Science Monitor says: From high court, warning to whistle-blowers.
The Supreme Court says everyone in government service is now a vassal of the Executive branch with no protection. Complain about waste or fraud and the government can fire you.
Forget about the grievance procedures if you have a problem, because you can be punished if you use them. Buy a pre-paid phone with cash and call the media, because this government isn’t interested in honesty or integrity, but someone in the media might be.
5 comments
The trouble is that the administration has a strangle hold on all three branches of government. The press, is all we have left, and they are under siege. Good thing that there are blogs!
The press needs to figure out that they are under siege and start fighting back. They are not going to prosper if they lose all of their readers and viewers because they serve up pap.
the problem is who’s behind the media… if you trace every network, you’ll find a bit, fat business who’s in bed with the government. I only trust NPR (and sometimes I wonder about them lately) and the BBC (who will challenge politicians in their interviews in ways that are quite unimaginable in the US. Once in London, while watching such an interview, I witnessed how the reporter challenged the politician directly, poignantly, and without fear, it was great).
I listen to the BBC World Service and the reporting is amazing. They were interviewing a leader in Africa and when the individual being interviewed had a problem with English, the interviewer switched to French without losing a beat. They expect their local reporters to speak the local language as well as English.
The bulk of US media is so controlled by corporations that they won’t challenge anyone in power. The whole deal on the NSA tap was connected to the effort by the telcos to get away with creating multi-tiered Internet service.
NPR has shown a little spine lately, but I don’t trust them the way I once did.
NPR has become questionable in recent years, enough so that I dropped my membership in protest. I sincerely hope they will show the strength of will they were once known for. The BBC has become one of my primary sources as well, though it troubles me that I can’t find an American network I feel I can depend on. I suppose they feel threatened, and the Bushies may have more trouble finding a way to threaten the Beeb directly.
Stella has several bosses, but works in part for the government. I tried to show her an article about this; she winced, and promised to read it later. I doubt she’s in a position to need to blow the whistle, but everyone in any government-sponsored position needs to understand that the First Amendment alone no longer protects whistle-blowers. What a great Court we have.