Tonight on Special Report, Brit Hume noted the New York Times story Patterico wrote about in this post, and pointed out the gentle treatment Kerry has gotten from the major newspapers that Thomas Sowell wrote about in this piece.
Hume also noted that Reporters Without Borders ranked the U.S. 53rd on its latest press freedom index. That’s down from 17th, which was our rank in 2002 when the index was created. The reason?
Relations between the media and the Bush administration sharply deteriorated after the president used the pretext of “national security” to regard as suspicious any journalist who questioned his “war on terrorism.” The zeal of federal courts which, unlike those in 33 US states, refuse to recognise the media’s right not to reveal its sources, even threatens journalists whose investigations have no connection at all with terrorism.
We didn’t have a national shield law for reporters back when we were 17th, either, and the most notable casualty of that policy, Judith Miller, was thrown in jail by Patrick Fitzgerald, who was sicced on the Bush administration by — you guessed it — the media! But it’s all Bush’s fault anyway.
Video here.