Sorry, Lazy, Suck-ass Media

(but you knew that already)

NPR urged me to tune into PBS tonight for their "in-depth" coverage of the Democratic National Convention. I loved that. They train a camera on the stage in the Fleet Center and they train one on some talking heads in a studio and they call it "in-depth coverage."

The obscene Free Speech Cage is THE story of this convention. The idea of it, the fact that the democrats are silent on the issue. I don't watch TV too much, but I've seen a few speeches from Boston. I haven't seen anything about the caging of the public. Has it been on any TV? C-Span maybe?

Have the remarks from the Judge Douglas P. Woodlock, who heard the court challenge to the cage, been reported? "I, at first, thought before taking the view [of the site] that the characterizations of the space as being like an internment camp were litigation hyperbole. I now believe that it's an understatement. One cannot conceive of what other elements you would put in place to make a space more of an affront to the idea of free expression ..."

Even so, the judge denied the groups' challenge, claiming that the zone was necessary to ensure the safety of the delegates.

In a truthout.org editorial, Michael Avery writes:

In his decision the judge said that he found it "irretrievably sad" that circumstances required the conditions in the demonstration zone. Of course, the court was free to decide that the government had not proven that the conditions were necessary and a more intrepid judge would have done so. What is genuinely "irretrievably sad" is that the judicial branch has accepted so uncritically the demands of the security arm of the state and that one of the lessons of this convention is that the First Amendment is now in urgent need of a life support system to survive.

(ed. note: post edited after publishing)