Substack (substack.com) "Media Censorship and the First Amendment: A threat to Freedom and the Republic"
When the founding fathers put freedom of speech, first - it was not by chance. It was by design. The rights that followed were in part, created to protect the first Amendment. Without it, they knew that freedom itself would perish.
. . ."Lara Logan: Thank you, Senator Johnson. Hello everybody. I was asked to testify on media censorship and the First Amendment, the importance of free speech. And I do want to say that it is an honor and a privilege to be here with all of you and with you. Senator Johnson, thank you for hosting this “Rogue” committee.
"It is important to all of us because of everything discussed today, that we address the vital principles and values that exist really only in the United States of America. And that said, these are the worst of times for the media in this country. We live in the age of information warfare where propaganda is not simply a weapon, it is the entire field of battle. This is a war for our minds that is aided by advanced technology, and we have never been here, not in all of human history.
"It is a moment when we as journalists should stand together united and regardless of politics, we should fight for the truth and we should fight for freedom. Yet not very long ago, we allowed one of our own Tucker Carlson to be branded as a traitor simply for doing his job. In fact, there were many, so-called journalists who were leading the charge against Tucker, accusing him of treason for the simple fact of interviewing the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. And to my knowledge, there was not a single legacy media institution that spoke up.
"This was more than a politically motivated attack on one man. It was a betrayal of the most sacred principles of a free press. And my media colleagues know this to be true no matter what they say. My fear is that they either no longer care or that they lack the moral courage to be honest, including with themselves. I have worked at the highest levels of the media as a full-time correspondent for 60 Minutes, chief Foreign correspondent for CBS News, chief Foreign Affairs correspondent for CBS News. That was my home for 16 years. And as a journalist, I have sat down with world leaders, mass murderers and terrorists, and I have held people on both sides of the aisle accountable.
"I have seen suffering and I have faced evil, and I have walked through the fires of hell on distant battlefields. I faced my own death at the hands of a mob of some 200 men in Egypt when I was gang raped and sodomized and beaten almost to death while on assignment for 60 minutes.
"And yet for almost a decade, I have been targeted and falsely branded and accused of many things that I did not do. They have attacked my work, my character, my sanity, and my marriage. And I am not alone. We are many and we will not give up, and we will not give in to those who wish to censor the idea of free speech. In America and all over the world, media companies, institutions, and journalism schools have failed all of us. And for too long we have allowed nonprofit organizations to masquerade as nonpartisan media watchdogs, when in fact they are a little more than highly paid political propagandists and assassins, whose entire reason for being is to crush anyone who stands in their way." Read the entire testimony of Ms. Logan here.
