RE LIBERALISM GOVERNMENT AND THE MEDIA DOUBLE STANDARDS

The media insist vehemently on their freedom of expression true or false, with only weak private remedies available against them,  even though they often claim to hold a sacred trust to the public at large for truth and accuracy, and for education and welfare, almost as fiduciaries, rather like the obligations imposed on government in fact by law; they insist on  the confidentiality of their sources, and of their work product itself, of their deliberations, and their financing, and influences on them monetary and otherwise, to the extent they can protect them from disclosure, verification or falsification.

 

On the other hand, they have always insisted even more vehemently on government in the complete sunshine where deliberative bodies cannot even meet privately, public and quasi public records full and complete access,  and absolute transparency in government functions of all kinds. This is especially true at the local level. States and the federal government have some protection, but they are constantly challenged and invaded by going to employees directly, whether they would qualify as whistleblowers, or merely informants or not. Only during actual or seriously anticipated litigation are such contacts, going around responsible authorities to others within government, restricted under the law. Government confidential informants in criminal investigations and litigation are also protected, as exceptions to the rules of transparency and disclosure.

 

Re The NYT's video, the truth is more important than every:

 

The classic Hollywood cinema is filled, filled, with good, faithful illustrations of mostly power hungry, unscrupulous, evil, or just greedy, newspaper men, down through the decades, owners, editors, and reporters, the lot. No better in fact or in principle than the politicians, or the mafiosi, that they so cynically covered. Take a look, some time, at just some of it.

The best account I have read about the skillful use of the privacy of the media, versus the public exposure of government, which is routine then and now, is Quigley's account of the Flora Shaw Affair at The Times, regarding the Jamestown Raid and related issues, where a secret society colluded with a newspaper controlled by it and with the Salisbury government, setting part of the stage, politically and propagandistically, for WWI. Of course, the major difference is that the British government in its actions and deliberations was not at that time subject to sunshine laws, or public records laws to the extent modern American governments are. The Anglo-American Establishment, "The Times".

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