For example, newspapers… does anyone really need a printing press more advanced than what was available in the late 18th century?

The Founding Fathers never foresaw broadcast media, much less the internet… surely, the First Amendment doesn’t apply to those.

In the U.S., the Media self regulates…

voiceofreason on January 22, 2013 at 9:27 AM

Thanks. I needed the laugh.

It all comes down to how it is interpreted. If a news report is deemed to be “insulting” and the journalist(s) and/or news organization responsible were deemed to have strayed outside the protection (assuming it still had any) of the First Amendment then punishment could be meted out. Unlikely for the foreseeable future, but the implications are there.

Given time and the right circumstances, anything is possible. I don’t think journalists at that point would be too happy (this is not what we meant…).

The disease has hopped onto AmeriKa too.

In a very schadenfreudig abstract way I wish it onto the US media. However, I’d prefer that they suffocate from eating Obama’s sh*t, which they confuse with Beluga caviar.

Wow.

An entire continent of free nations pissing away their rights without so much as a feeble struggle.

Bishop on January 22, 2013 at 9:18 AM

All of Europe did so decades ago. And they never had or will have a government structure, a concept of checks and balances, or certain inalienable rights like the US USED to have. Pre-Obama, of course.

…orders for printed or broadcast apologies…

How does that work exactly? They order somebody to mouth the words, or else! Lies are not apologies.

jukin3 on January 22, 2013 at 11:20 AM

Well said…I notice quite a few US conservative bloggers get stuff from the UK Daily Mail. Although the BBC tends to slant left (like your networks) the Mail, Sun & Telegraph, all conservative, are the biggest selling papers in the UK. the US does not appear to have any big selling conservative newspapers. Talk about the 1st amendment all you like it still has not stopped the US media (almost all of it) pimping Obama 100% and downsizing Fast/Furious, Benghazi, Black Panthers etc

Sean Agnew ‏@seanagnew

RT @AP: BREAKING: Neb. governor tells federal officials he’s approved new Canadian pipeline route through state – BW

Wow.

An entire continent of free nations pissing away their rights without so much as a feeble struggle.

Bishop on January 22, 2013 at 9:18 AM

Eloquently put.

“Let’s Execute Jounalists”……..

THIS is a different discussion…..nevermind…

It’s now a policy matter, not a constitutional one.

It just seems to happen so quickly over there; one day they have a freedom and the next day it’s gone with the stroke of a pen.

Bishop on January 22, 2013 at 9:26 AM

European nations are literally the living incarnation of leftist beliefs that all your rights come from government, and this is one of the results. Unlike the USA there are basically no ‘brakes’ to slow down things. Everything you cherish can literally be gone in a day with a stroke of a pen and then it’s “have fun storming the castle”.

Wow.

An entire continent of free nations pissing away their rights without so much as a feeble struggle.

Bishop on January 22, 2013 at 9:18 AM

I dunno why you find this so amazing, Bish. We’re an entire nation of 50 subsidiary sovereign states that pissed away their rights at the ballot box over the last century. It happens.

gryphon202 on January 22, 2013 at 9:22 AM

Yup. And it happens when people no longer truly understand the concepts of Individual Liberty and Unalienable Rights.

Democracy is just another word for Mob Rule. That is, unless the appropriate safeguards are built in to protect the rights of individuals and minority opinions. Unless we bother ourselves to understand WHY our Constitution prioritizes those things, how can we protect them? We’ve stood by and allowed the statist left, through academia and popular culture, to indoctrinate generations of Americans. And now, we’ve got AMERICANS going to the polls and voting their rights away. It’s unbelievable to me. But, there it is. We’ve seen our population dumbed down to the point where people no longer understand the basics of Freedom.

I was way off.

Washington Nearsider on January 22, 2013 at 9:48 AM

It does look like Sarah “I lied, I’m only 13″ Holcomb.

The Europeans should follow the U.S. model, start at the Journalism school level, completely brainwash everyone and then sic them on the public, who believes they’re actually unbiased, and voila, you have Pravda and Izvestia and you didn’t even have to threaten them.

bflat879 on January 22, 2013 at 9:57 AM

They are ahead of the US. The “conservatively-led” BBC is a case-in-point.

They even cover up the dirty knickers of their faves better than any organisation outside the National Enquirer. Jimmy Savile, 100s-1000s of victims, and both Piers Morgan and the new Pres & CEO of the New York Times, Mark Thompson, who once admitted that Muslims got better treatment than Christians in the news, covered it up.