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OpEdNews Op Eds    H4'ed 7/5/15

Take-aways From Clinton's Reporter Roping and Segregation

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There are a number of worrisome takeaways from the news that Hillary Clinton is roping of the press when she engages with the public-- a story that has gone viral on twitter in the past day. It seems reasonable to predict that Hillary will be bad news for the press, press freedoms, whistleblowers and government transparency.
Sam Feist of CNN tweeted:

Copyrighted Image? DMCA

This is not a new idea for the Clintons.

Back in 2011 at the NetrootsNation annual conference, I was shocked and insulted to learn that during Bill Clinton's talk to the conference, media people were required to sit in a press area, corralled like undesirables. I was given an ultimatum- sit in the assigned area or leave the room-- by an unpleasant Clinton staffer.
Now we see Hillary mistreating media the same way her husband did. But perhaps there are methods, beyond simply embarrassingly putting press people in their place.
Media professor Jay Rosen Tweeted:
Jay Rosen "-@jayrosen_nyu 22h22 hours ago

This was the problem the rope was meant to solve. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/07/04/clinton-campaign-gives-new-meaning-to-the-term-rope-line-at-new-hampshire-parade/ " Also the reason reporters are there at all.


And when Bill Clinton required press to be corralled he could be sure that they were not asking questions without him knowing they were press.

It seems there are a number of possible implications that can be extrapolated from the Clinton family's treatment of the press.

  • She would have little respect for the free press.
  • She would use roping and corralling to control the press
  • She would use literal and metaphorical roping to cast a veil, to decrease transparency
  • She would restrict first amendment press freedoms

  • She would have little respect for the free press.
    The Clinton history suggests that a Hillary presidency would treat the press not as valuable elements of democracy but rather, as enemies or tools to use or repress.

    She would use literal and metaphorical roping to cast a veil, to decrease transparency
    As Jay Rosen tweeted, she's using the roping to keep the press from hearing what she's saying to the public. It is not unreasonable to expect that this could apply, in a bigger picture way to her approach to transparency-- or the opposite, to efforts to create and maintain opacity and secrecy.

    They would use roping and corralling to control the press
    As president, Hillary would be able to create more distant boundaries and challenges to access her, the White House, administration appointees. Her existing patterns suggests she might even use presidential orders and administration policy to make it all the more difficult for the press to have access to her or government.



    They would restrict first amendment press freedoms
    Let's remember that Eric Holder was originally a Clinton Appointee, and that he has done serious damage to the first amendment and freedom of the press by prosecuting and winning against NY Times reporter James Risen, setting a precedent that reporters no longer have the right to protect sources in federal investigations. Risen said Holder had "seriously damaged the first amendment of the United States."

    Though we have to assume that Obama totally supported Holder's assault on press freedoms and the first amendment, even he did not engage in such offensive treatment of the press. Hillary, being as blatant as she is in her disrespect could be telegraphing future policy, if she becomes president, that takes the restrictions on the first amendment by the Obama/Holder DOJ even further.

    Hillary has said that she could never condone Edward Snowden's actions, using arguments that don't stand up to fact-checking. Wikileaks' Julian Assange told Democracy Now, " Hillary Clinton... tries to reshape the chronology in order to smear Edward Snowden with being a Russian spy."

    It seems reasonable to predict that a president Hillary would continue, even ramp up the historic attack on whistleblowers that Barack Obama instituted.

    In conclusion, the best way to predict a person's behavior is by their actions. Hillary has given us clear clues about how she'll act in the White House, when it comes to the press. It is not pretty. And let's not forget her setting up a separate, private email server, violating policy.


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    Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer-- first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978-- Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story-- each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people's consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com-- which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up-- The Connection Revolution, (more...)
     

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