Michigan Lawmaker's Proposal to License Journalists a Slippery Slope

[NormaRegula]

A state senator from Michigan thinks journalists should pay for a board-approved licence and meet the criteria of having a "good moral character", among other attributes.

Warner Todd Hudson: This is the chubby face of tyranny. A Michigan State Senator has introduced an Orwellian bill that would provide for the licensing of journalists. There is no doubt that this thing is aimed squarely at delegitimizing the New Media, silencing bloggers, and creating a protected class of state approved "journalists."

-http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2010/06/old_new_media_agree_michigan_l.html

 

[Laura]

I guess a "good moral character" means going to church on Sunday or prayer breakfasts with George Bush and the gang?

 

[NormaRegula]

Yup. That sounds about right.

When I first read the "good moral character" part, I thought: whose morals? A right-wing politician's sense of "morality"?

Reminds me of Gurdjieff's distrust of morality - that it varies from culture to culture and is superficial and/or contradictory.

 

[henry]

The “morality" of the journalists who played and replayed the hypnotic images of the planes flying into the Twin Towers, the images of the Towers collapsing, but who don’t show the American troops coming home in body bags and coffins, who don’t show the destruction of Iraq, Afghanistan, or the murder of Palestinians. Or the journalists who don’t say a thing when Helen Thomas who is thrown out of the White House because she says what’s her mind.

Or who don’t raise a stink about the US and its allies torturing people and kidnapping them.

That morality?

 

[Avi]

Wow! What an incredible farce! Another attempt at keeping people quiet on the issues and from speaking about what they see. Undoubtedly Facebook and such social media outlets will become considered "journalism" if this idiot gets his way.

I think Oscar Wilde summed it up well when he said:

Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.

In which case I am feeling very "moral" towards this "Senator".

Another one from Wilde that hits the nail on the head:

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

Edit: clarity

 

[Christopher]

:O It's Rich Uncle Pennybags, aka Mr. Monopoly :P

_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Uncle_Pennybags
_http://media.photobucket.com/image/monopoly%20man/Luker9000/monopoly.jpg?o=8