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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (757071)	1/10/2007 5:50:28 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Re: "What about my example of a newspaper printing the D Day information? Should that be printed because it's newsworthy?" Want me to 'go back' in time and contrive an answer for you? OK.... My guess is it would clearly have been harmful (from the point-of-view of 'national interest' for these respective nations) for a U.S. or a British, or a Soviet newspaper to reveal the date and location of an impending D-Day landing; but (also from the same point-of-view of national interest) it would have been helpful for a German or Japanese or other Axis paper to reveal such info.... Of course, I also don't believe that 'national interest' is necessarily always 100% congruent with the 'interest of a government' (as the above example illustrates!). And, I also agree with Jefferson, who said: "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." --- Thomas Jefferson, in 1816. And: “I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.” --- Thomas Jefferson And: "When the people fear the government, you have TYRANNY, when the government fears the people, you have FREEDOM" --- Thomas Jefferson In short --- your historical thought experiment aside --- 99% of the time, Press freedom is vastly superior to the alternatives..... I'd like to wind-up with this one from Twain: "Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it." --- Mark Twain