Sunday, March 20, 2011

Doesn't this violate the 1st Amendment -- Freedom of Speech ???

I've been away for a while -- lawyer-shopping, learning facebook, fighting the good fight and getting spring gardening work done.  Hope to be back here more often, now.

Just for grins, I started keeping my little "free" copy of the U.S. Constitution handy a coupla years ago -- AND I find myself re-reading it often -- now THAT's not been an item of interest to me in around four decades~!  But it is NOW -- and it's something that more bureaucraps, Judges and lawyers should refer to -- more often than I do, since they seem to act with impunity in making up their OWN laws as they go along ~!

(NaturalNews) Many prominent organizations and agencies like the FDA release information with an embargo on it. In other words, news organizations will agree not to publish this information until a certain date. This gives the journalists time to research and write their articles, so that their more detailed investigation - often a deeper perspective on a complex story - can appear at the same time as the organization's press conference.

So the FDA's new policy goes like this; you can write about FDA's new drug/medical device approval, but you can't do any outside research or ask any experts to weigh in on our decision before the embargo is lifted. The FDA wants to forbid reporters from doing any independent research and gathering opposing views. Effectively, the FDA wants journalists to not ask questions, not to seek independent experts and simply tow the FDA line like good little stenographers.
This is a drastic change - journalists customarily share the information with other experts in the field to get a more impartial perspective. These experts are are always apprised of the embargo, must agree to its terms, and fall under the same confidentiality agreement as the media organization.
In response to the FDA's statement, the nonprofit Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) - the nation's largest group of health reporters - sent a strongly worded letter to the FDA, objecting to the administration's "highly unusual" new policy: "[This] restriction...rewrote a longstanding compact between reporters and various public and scientific organizations. It also hampered or delayed reporters' ability to fully inform the public about what the FDA is doing with taxpayers' money."

The group continued, "Reporters who want to be competitive on a story will essentially have to agree to write only what the FDA wants to tell the world, without analysis or outside commentary."
Learn more:
http://www.naturalnews.com/031768_FDA_journalists.html#ixzz1HAf3iDtk
 
fyi, Amendment I:  Congress shall make no law respecting an establisment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assmeble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.  (IF you'd like a free, pocket-size copy of this document, call 1-800-767-1241; from http://www.cato.org/)

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