Freedom of the Press ... Or Not

High school newspaper squelched in Myrtle Beach

From The Associated Press

Two high school newspapers were shut down recently after school administrators objected to editorial material.

In Myrtle Beach, The Academy Post at the Academy for Arts, Science & Technology was not distributed last month after students published an editorial advocating same-sex marriage without consulting administrators.

Full story here.

What Will Your FCC Chair Look Like?

The American public is inviting applications for the position of chair of the Federal Communications Commission. We seek a dynamic candidate who will champion the public interest at a time of hope and transformation for our national media.

The Web site FressPress.Net invites people to vote on the priorities of the new FCC Chair that President-Elect Obama will select.

Go here to vote.

Drilling for misinformation

Rumors abound. Everyone is talking about oil. Gas prices. Drilling in Alaska.
Oil companies, foreign governments, regular citizens all put forth their ideas here on the Web. What's true and what's not is hard to distinguish.

On the (Internet) radio, I heard that Alaskan oil was being exported to Japan rather than being refined and used here to keep us "energy independent." A Google search revealed a range of answers to my skeptical mind. Some sites dismissed the entire idea that the oil was sent abroad while others noted that Pres. Clinton, after much prodding from oil companies, allowed oil exports to Asia.

We've all seen the ads that try to sell us the idea that oil companies are friendly, clean, happy people that just want to make our world a shiny, happy place. ... Based on my last trip to the filling station, that can't be entirely true. (A further explanation of a specific example can be found here too.)

How much can we believe our myriad sources of information when many are owned by a handful of corporate conglomerates?

This site Save The Internet says that

The nation's largest telephone and cable companies -- including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner -- want to be Internet gatekeepers, deciding which Web sites go fast or slow and which won't load at all.

Are we going to let this happen? Find your senators here and your representatives here.

The Supreme Court declared in 1945 that "the widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources is essential to the welfare of the public, that a free press is a condition of a free society."

I agree.
I don't want big corporations censoring America. I want to hear every one's opinion. I want to be able to examine all these opinions, facts and sides of every issue and decide for myself. I want to critically think about issues because nearly all are not as black and white as they appear in 15-min. rotations on CNN, MSNBC or FoxNews.

What about you?
Post your ideas in the comments section.