Sounds Of Silence Freedom Of Press Takes A Dive

The recent report by Reporters Without Borders recently published his World Freedom of the Press Index for 2013 and guess what. The U.S. dropped to 46th place. When we have a press that views our President as the equivalent of a king who can do no wrong, who can ignore with impunity the Constitution by unilaterally amended laws to fit his agenda or simply ignoring them, and what may be the most frightening of all insert the IRS into the political arena to chill conservative voter groups, it is only surprising to me that we have not fallen further.
       Beyond acts of our government to cause the law score, what is really frightening is that the mainstream media in large part has abdicated its proper and vital role to question and expose the failings of our government. In their view Obama and his Blues can do no wrong and the Reds can do no right. Once upon a time there used to be strong voices in the Senate and House to preserve the separation of powers and to vigilantly defend any attack by the Presidency to expand its powers and their expense. Sadly no more at least on the Blue sides of the aisle.
       This comment came to me, inspired by the notes of that Simon and Garfunkel classic "Sounds of Silence" and to a lesser extent that rhetorical question of when a tree falls in the forest with no one there, does it make a sound?  The few voices like Fox cannot do this job alone; their fellow journalists even the rabid partisan voices at MSNBC need to start doing their jobs, objectively or our "free press" may become the equivalent only of a Pravda--a mouthpiece for the party in power.
Sounds Of Silence Freedom Of Press Takes A Dive

It should not come as a shock in this latest report

U.S. increasingly fails to a free press support

A watchdog for the freedom of the press, Reporters without Borders

Points out drastic decline to 46 in where we stand in the press freedom order

No surprise, as the mainstream media has anointed Obama as one who can do not wrong

If the press is a Fox or conservative voice in the scheme of things, you do not belong

If you are in mainstream media, such voices are really not a member of the press

We’ll turn our eyes, close our ears, go back inside and ignore any federal attempts to suppress

If the press is muzzled by its own willing coronation choice
Who is left to protect to protect us as the feds ignore our voice?
The sounds of silence are written on the subway walls
Coated with graffiti on the bathroom stalls
Sounds of silence also found in the headlines and TV screens
The bands of bias rule what is or is not to be seen
Easy to see bias by tones, sneers, words, facials in any news report
Harder when after the salvo, no time for the target to retort
When the stories bias picks and bias will always its view choose
Sounds of Silence win and guess who among us will lose?
First the 4^th Estate and if the voices of dissent are culled and only bystanders remain
How quickly before a free press becomes a sham, one only in name?
How soon can an imperial presidency grow to where it cannot be checked?
Too soon as Reid’s and Pelosi’s minions no longer have the will to its growth reject
How soon may the IRS silence the rally-the-conservative vote to a Senate reclaim?
Sooner than you think without a press to the power grab expose and explain
The mainstream media almost Blue to its very core remains sound asleep
They will go down along with us and the freedoms we would like to keep

Sounds of Silence written on the White House walls

Sounds of Silence unheard as the press muzzled and falls

© February 13, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet