By: Don Caldwell
Big brother may be watching you…
Should the government have the right to regulate what you report as news?
Former president Bill Clinton recently expressed interest in creating an Internet agency to target falsehoods in news reporting.
Excerpts italicized:
If Bill Clinton had his way, there would be an Internet agency created by the U.S. government or United Nations to debunk malicious rumors that originate and spread online.
"I think it would be a legitimate thing to do," Clinton told CNBC in an interview that aired Friday. He was interviewed alongside Mati Kochavi, a cyber-security entrepreneur.
But Clinton added that if such an agency were ever created, it would have to be "totally transparent" about where its funding came from and would have to be independent.
Although most would probably agree that truth in media is important, who should have the power to decide what is true or not?
His comments expressed the importance of the independence of such an agency, and that it should leave opinion out of its decisions (focusing only on whether or not the information is “fact”).
Such policies and agencies exist / have existed before (Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, People’s Republic of China, etc.), but as history tells us, such power will be abused.
The First Amendment of the Constitution guarantees the freedom of the press for these very reasons. Do we want the government to have a say in what someone can report?
I know I don’t want the “Thought Police” (ala “1984”) knocking at my door…
(ORIGINAL LINK) Bill Clinton Muses About Creating Internet Agency to Combat Falsehoods - FoxNews.com
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