Jamilah Hoffman, 6/30/06
We are living in weird times. I feel this is more certain watching the
fallout of The New York Times article that exposed the government‘s secret bank surveillance program.
It‘s like we‘re in a play, but I don‘t know my lines, but I‘m pressured to just go along. It all started a few days ago when I was
watching a news program that showed a clip of the vice president saying that
what The New York Times did was a ‘disgrace.‘
That was followed by a clip of the president saying that it was ‘disgraceful‘ that the news media disclosed the program. Various members of congress echoed the same ‘disgraceful‘ tune. I get the sense
that they want us to join with them in the same ‘disgrace‘
choir, but not so fast. What did The New
York Time do that was so bad?
They ran a story.
They reported that the government examines the banking records of
Americans and others through the Central Intelligence Agency, and overseen by
the Treasury Department. Duh! I suppose the outrage shown would be valid if
what was reported actually posed a threat.
I mean, I just watched a montage of president Bush giving speeches
starting after September 11, stating over and over again, that the government
was going after the bank records of the terrorists. The New York Times just validated what was
said before. The president‘s outrage is very misplaced and
disingenuous. As with the vice president
and various members of congress, overwhelmingly Republican. It‘s
great that they can all read and repeat the same talking points, but they must
think we‘re idiots to believe
that what The New York Times did actually posed a threat, or aided terrorists.
Not that I think highly of terrorists or anything, but are
they not savvy enough to know that the American government would do any and
everything to go after them, including examining bank records? Why is this a
story? What good comes out of this
regime attacking the press in this way?
When I heard that Republican House leaders drafted a
resolution condemning the reports, I felt that this was just another step in
dismantling a free press in this country and that we need to do what we can to
make sure that freedom of speech and especially of the press stays in
tact. They say that the first casualty
in war is truth, but why is this so? In
times of war, and especially during this so called war on terror in which it
has no end date, the truth is needed now more than ever. No matter what our opinion of the mainstream
media falls, when attacks like these go unanswered, it allows for more and more
attacks to occur until when the media is just a megaphone for the
administration in power.
I can‘t
imagine what it would be like if The Washington Post did not run it‘s series on the Watergate break-in
that led to Nixon‘s
resignation. Or if The New York Times
did not run the Pentagon Papers exposing the internal dialogue building up to
and during the war in Vietnam,
giving the public the truth and just another reason to end that war.
During times of war, it is especially important that the
public knows the truth. Trust us, we can
handle it. We have before and we will
again. But when you keep things from us,
they have a way of sneaking out. And when that happens, you have to answer to
the same public you were trying to dupe.
And we won‘t be so
pleased when what was hidden comes to light.
Jamilah Hoffman is an organizer with The World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime.