President Biden is Right, "Free Press is Crumbling" and the United States Exports Its Media-Hostile Culture to Other Continents
The United States must have a '4th estate' because of its role in a democracy and well-functioning society.
YESTERDAY Kansas Reflector (similar and close to Marion County Record, known for vicious attacks by authorities against media) quoted president Joe Biden as saying that "free press is crumbling" on his way out of Office. It's an important message.
As a reminder, Donald Trump's regime put Julian Assange behind bars after it had plotted to torture and/or kill him, based on CIA leaks (those are verified, the CIA's chief at the time implicitly validated/verified this because it upset him that it had gotten out). Biden is the person who basically offered Assange a way out, so Assange was released and he's nowadays with his family in Australia. Biden, however, did not pardon Assange [1, 2, 3, 4]. It's probably too late now. To strengthen the message ("free press is crumbling") Biden could pardon Assange today, as in Friday. Some people still try (hours ago):
The "free press" does not mean Jeff Bezos et al-owned "establishment" media or "journals of record" that unlike Kansas Reflector are beholden to oligarchs - another aspect that Biden has just unambiguously cautioned against. The free press isn't beholden to anybody; it's independent and courageous enough to speak truth to power.
That's easier said than done, however, even in countries where journalists do not get assassinated with impunity (or by cops with immunity, conducting raids as in the above case). The oligarchs have already learned that to harm people inside media like Kansas Reflector or Marion County Record they can invoke raids that cause chiefs to literally die (from stress). They also learned how to weaponise media lawyers.
The main issue with media lawyers is, they risk cutting the tree branch on which they're sitting. If they fail to actually protect the press, there will be no press left and hence no clients anymore. It'll be like in Russia where people who report facts/views on Vladimir Putin get framed by planting drugs in their own homes. The concept of free press about Russia can nowadays only exist from outside Russia (check where Galina Timchenko from Mezuda is right now). Reporting from within Russia about Russia (unless it's pro-Vladimir Putin) is some kind of crime, more so after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, i.e. 3 years ago.
Worse yet, some media lawyers and law firms are so desperate for money (from the little that's left of the media) that they'd take totally meritless cases that risk the reputation of the whole firm. Yes, it does happen. More and more media perishes and there's not much of it to actually represent. The equivalent in nature is, having just mentioned sawing of tree branches (upon which one sits), picking up all the crops prematurely (or high-hanging fruit), leaving nothing to be picked up later, causing the entire village to starve. Put another way, media lawyers must be careful not to represent trolls and criminals. Consider the example of one seemingly misogynistic lawyer who is taking money from criminals (who literally suffocate women) in order to bully and terrorise their victims and those who report on the crimes. What would that do to the reputation of the whole occupation, set aside some particular firm?
Defensive media lawyers - as in people who defend journalism - know that the goal should be to protect honest press, not help criminals suppress reporting about their crimes.
The worst aspect of it all is, imagine some media lawyers only taking clients from another continent, in order to attack people in their own country. Imagine some British law firms going after Pakistanis in the UK, accusing them of "blasphemy" on behalf of Pakistanis who live in Pakistan. What if media in the UK was put under pressure or subjected to fire using bogus laws and phony pretexts that do not even exist in the UK?
Biden is right. But perhaps Biden should pay closer attention to how Donald Trump-inspired Americans take their battles to other continents, trying to silence critics and their families. █
Photo source: Daniel Pocock at DanielPocock.com.