Biden's Legacy: The World Is More Unsafe For Journalists
Editor's Note: The following is the fourth and final article in The Dissenter’s series on President Joe Biden's legacy when it comes to press freedom, whistleblowing, and government secrecy. The series began in November, and you can find previous articles here.
President Joe Biden’s administration proclaimed numerous times that “journalism is not a crime” and that the United States government supports “free and independent media around the world.” Biden said the “free press is crumbling” in his farewell address. But the reality is that Biden and his administration helped make the state of the free press more fragile.
Over 200 journalists in Gaza were killed by Israeli military forces armed by the Biden administration. Other client states, like India and Saudi Arabia, trampled on the human rights of reporters without fearing much criticism.
Through the political case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Biden became the first president to secure an Espionage Act conviction against a journalist.
Biden, along with Democrats, had plenty of time to pass a federal shield law to protect U.S. journalists from government interference. Yet when asked if he supported greater protection for the news media, the White House would not endorse the legislation.
And during the last week of Biden’s presidency, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller had guards drag a reporter out of a press briefing room.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) offered an assessment in their 2024 World Press Freedom Index that applies to the Biden administration:
A growing number of governments and political authorities are not fulfilling their role as guarantors of the best possible environment for journalism and for the public's right to reliable, independent, and diverse news and information. RSF sees a worrying decline in support and respect for media autonomy and an increase in pressure from the state or other political actors.
On top of Biden officials’ failure to create the “best possible environment for journalism,” they also cynically invoked freedom of the press to further U.S. foreign policy objectives. For example, officials were outspoken when Russia attacked journalists but nonchalant and tight-lipped when Israel killed, detained, or censored journalists.
Read the full article at The Dissenter.
Mister Joseph R Biden and sister ScKamala Harris were the worst presidents ever, ever, ever in the Herstory of scAmerica.
If we survive....
Biden is such a disappointment in so many ways. Yes, he got the Infrastructure and Chips Acts passed, against considerable odds, and these are critical to our national well-being. But perhaps I expected too much of the guy who got Clarence Thomas on the Court, and who managed the terrible cruelty of making student debt non-dischargeable in bankruptcy. Yet who could have expected that he'd break U.S. and international law in order to facilitate genocide? Something human is missing in Biden's makeup. May it not be missing in mine.