The “Land of the Free” is sandwiched between Romania and Haiti in terms of Press Freedom at rank 46. Think about that for a second. Romania was a part of the Soviet bloc and Haiti is notoriously unstable. Of the 180 countries surveyed, we’re technically not in the top quarter (1-45).
Had to scroll down a little to find us- at least I was a little patriotic in how I distinguished us. Click for bigger.
As a country with a constitutional amendment (constitutions are the framework of government) guaranteeing rights to expression and the press, and over 200 years of tradition to back this up, we should at least be comparable the United Kingdom (33), who:
A) forced the Guardian, arguably their most reputable newspaper, to destroy classified documents,
B) detained Glenn Greenwald’s journalistic partner and interrogated him,
C) has an unwritten constitutional monarchy
D) and of course is who we got away from to begin with.
Why have we fallen so low?
We are at historic highs in whistle-blower crackdowns and our treatment of people such as Mr. Snowden has not exactly been very nice (he’s hiding in Russia after all!). Meanwhile, promises of transparency and open government have yet to be adequately answered. How exactly can we be the “Home of the Brave” if the brave become too intimidated to stand up and the population is complacent? An intimidated press is not a strong one.
In the words of Robin Williams: “You are the kindest country in the world. You are like a really nice apartment over a meth lab.” Hello, Canada. [Once again, click for bigger.]