Think that we are "biting the hand" [i.e. the Washington Post] that reports this story"?
Well, just take a look at the WP story: they link you to THEIR OWN general, encyclopedic pages about each of the countries they name in their story... BUT OMIT the MOST IMPORTANT LINK, the one to "Reporters Without Borders" who compiled the rankings!
COULD IT BE that the Washington Post editors and publishers want to MISINFORM or NOT inform their readers???
And, note as well... NO WHERE IN THIS STORY does the Washington Post INFORM US exactly WHAT America's previous rank was, HOW FAR we have fallen, and what our CURRENT RANK IS!
THEY DO A STORY about "US FALLS IN PRESS FREEDOM RANKINGS"..... WITHOUT TELLING US HOW FAR WE FELL, what our previous rankings were, and what our CURRENT RANKING IS!
MUCH LESS WHAT, exactly it was, THAT CAUSED AMERICA TO DROP in the "press freedom" rankings!
Washington Post, YOU SAD, PATHETIC WHORES!
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Well, HERE is the Reporters Without Borders 2006 Annual report:
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=17084
pdf download at:
http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/report.pdf
How can we comment on this report without going into a 1,000 page PhD thesis? How about mentioning some comments on the Big Ed Schultz radio show today (www.WeGotEd.com), that Mr. Bush is A MASTER of MANIPULATING his captive White House press corps, Bush using each and every question HE asks reporters as a means to make personal comments and observations on dress, hairstyle, physical size, (eg "stretch" and "little stretch"), to engage in small-talk with the reporters, to get mad at some questions, and of course the ever-present non-answer-answer or diversionary answer, WITH NO FOLLOW UP QUESTION allowed or entertained.
THE WASHINGTON PRESS CORPS' stunning SERVILE SUBSERVIENCE would be QUITE IMPOSSIBLE were the WASHINGTON POST and NEW YORK TIMES to INSIST on aksing the hard, probing, demanding questions THAT IT IS THEIR BUSINESS TO ASK.
INTIMIDATION of the US press/media STARTS IN THE WHITE HOUSE and the person of George W. Bush; and the WHORE Post and WHORE Times are the LEAD CHEERLEADERS in the entire USA for this abject, gross ABUSE and MISUSE of America's precious, and hard-fought reputation as a world leader in FREEDOM OF THE PRESS.
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U.S. Rank on Press Freedom Slides Lower
By Nora Boustany
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, October 24, 2006; A15
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/23/AR2006102301148_pf.html
Some poor countries, such as Mauritania and Haiti, improved their record in a global press freedom index this year, while France, the United States and Japan slipped further down the scale of 168 countries rated, the group Reporters Without Borders said yesterday.
The news media advocacy organization said the most repressive countries in terms of journalistic freedom -- such as North Korea, Cuba, Burma and China -- made no advances at all.
The organization's fifth annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index tracks actions against news media through the end of September. The group noted its concern over the declining rankings of some Western democracies as well as the persistence of other countries in imposing harsh punishments on media that criticize political leaders.
"Unfortunately nothing has changed in the countries that are the worst predators of press freedom, and journalists in North Korea, Eritrea, Turkmenistan, Cuba, Burma and China are still risking their life or imprisonment for trying to keep us informed," the organization said in a news release. North Korea holds the worst ranking at 168.
Iran ranks 162nd, between Saudi Arabia and China. The report said conditions in Russia and Belarus have not improved. It said that Russia continued to steadily dismantle the independent media and that the recent slaying of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya "is a poor omen for the coming year."
Northern European countries top the index, with no reported censorship, threats, intimidation or physical reprisals, either by officials or the public, in Finland, Ireland, Iceland and the Netherlands. All of those countries were ranked in first place.
Serious threats against the artists and publishers of the Muhammad cartoons, which caricatured the prophet of Islam, caused Denmark, which was also in first place last year, to drop to 19th place. Yemen, at 149th place, slipped four places, mostly because of the arrests of journalists and the closure of newspapers that reprinted the cartoons. Journalists in Algeria, Jordan, Indonesia and India were harassed because of the cartoons as well.
Although it ranked 17th on the first list, published in 2002, the United States now stands at 53, having fallen nine places since last year.
"Relations between the media and the Bush administration sharply deteriorated after the president used the pretext of 'national security' to regard as suspicious any journalist who questioned his 'war on terrorism,' " the group said.
"The zeal of federal courts which, unlike those in 33 U.S. states, refuse to recognize the media's right not to reveal its sources, even threatens journalists whose investigations have no connection at all with terrorism," the group said.
Lucie Morillon, the organization's Washington representative, said the index is based on responses to 50 questions about press freedom asked of journalists, free press organizations, researchers, human rights activists and others.
France, 35th, dropped five places since last year because of searches of media offices and journalists' homes, as well as physical attacks on journalists during a trade union dispute, the group said.
In Lebanon, a series of bomb attacks targeting journalists and publishers in 2005, and Israeli military attacks last summer, contributed to a drop in the country's ranking from 56th to 107th in the past four years.
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