This post from Instapundit about freedom of the press got me to thinking.  It’s gotten to the point where I don’t watch any of the major national networks for news (ABC, NBC, CBS), nor do I watch CNN.  The bias permeates every word and phrase of their reports to such an extent that I find myself screaming at them within seconds.  I only watch local news and read the papers (although the AP and other national reports are quickly identifiable as such by their bias, even if they didn’t have the byline to identify their source).

Anyhow, Instapundit’s correspondent was curious if freedom of the press would survive a hostile public as more and more people conclude that the press is anti-American.  Given our rather mix-and-match approach to the constitution these days, that’s not so far fetched a question as it might appear.  My first thought would be to give the journalists a dose of Second Amendment treatment and see how they fare.  No, I don’t mean shoot the bastards (although that thought is strangely tempting).  Instead, I mean to expose them to the same treatment that the Second gets in this country.  Namely, create a patchwork of conflicting and unconstitutional laws that vary from state to state.  Create unconstitutional national laws that can put them in jail for 10 years for a first-time paperwork violation, and consequently bar them from reporting for life.  Require background checks to buy reporting equipment.  Constantly harp on them about whether they really ‘need’ that printing press or those video cameras.  Create special taxes on video supplies.  Get local city councils to zone existing news buildings out of existence, forcing them to move to the country.  There are probably a lot more I could come up with, but you get the picture.

And when they complain that this is unconstitutional, respond with a disingenous answer about how the term ‘press’ really doesn’t apply to them. 

If I seem a bit peeved by the press these days, it’s only because these very same smug bastards who report on everything the U.S. does with a sneer would be calling for the heads of gun owners if we were even half as reckless with our guns as they’ve been with their reporting.  If I didn’t have the Internet as a source to know that there are good things happening on the ground in Iraq and all I based my impression of the situation on were the ‘mainstream’ press, I’d be pretty pessimistic about the situation.  Joe Sixpack, coming home from work and flipping over to Peter Jennings in the evening, probably thinks Iraq is turning into another Vietnam.  Or at least that’s what I gathered from the last time I tried to watch that sorry bastard Jennings and his socialist cohorts on ABC last Friday.