The Freedom of the Press Foundation has published an article in which they detail how almost everything that was done to WikiLeaks is now being done to the mainstream media. This includes the recent revelations of U.S. government spying on the Associated Press, which has almost always stayed close to the official government line and even Fox News, the beloved biased propaganda tool of the far right and neo-conservatives, an outlet which has publicized calls for the assassination of Julian Assange.

According to the Freedom of the Press Foundation the silence of the media when the all out attack by the U.S. government on WikiLeaks began has led to the same tactics now being used on other mainstream media outlets.

For the likes of Fox News this is no doubt a shock as they no doubt believed they were invulnerable to any attempt at censorship or government intimidation, after all they goose marched lock stock and barrel alongside corporate-neo-conservative-far-right-interests that control the United States Government and America in general.

It was in fact Fox News which appeared out of nowhere in 2000 to announce to the American people, before the fact, that George Bush had surprisingly won the presidency and that some claim was instrumental in allowing the neo-conservative extremist right-wing elements to take over the United States Government and throw the world into the black era in history that we are all living in today.

These very media outlets have been instrumental since the very beginning in bashing and demonizing WikiLeaks, Fox News first and foremost, so it is very interesting to watch the same people they have been bashing stand up for them and their freedom of expression. I would argue that Fox News is not a media outlet and is not a member of the press, as they are in fact a mere propaganda tool for right-wing corporate interests but the Freedom of the Press Foundation is much more gracious and makes the point at the opposite end of the spectrum, that WikiLeaks is no different than the AP and Fox.

In a perfect world both ends of the spectrum would have equal rights, perhaps even Fox News and their manipulative biased propaganda, and organizations like WikiLekas which fight for transparency and accountability would be the champions of all that is good and right.

Unfortunately we, and in particular Americans, live in a far from perfect world and in this case America is largely responsible for making it thus. Since 2000 the world has been plunged into a paradigm that was created by the neo-conservative planners at the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) and that includes the Orwellian American hyper-security state engaged in an endless world war against phantom menaces and everything under the sun.

The tools that the U.S. has used are many and the targets are as widespread and diverse as their number. Targets have included everything from bloggers, social media, hackers, and everyone and anything that the U.S. deems to be a threat or an enemy.

According to the Freedom of the Press Foundation the U.S. Government has now taken to using the same “tools” against mass media as they have on WikiLeaks, these include: potential conspiracy to commit espionage charges, equating journalist to spies and espionage, refusing to notify journalists that they are being watched and requesting data without a warrant. The U.S. government has even introduced legislation which would allow the U.S. to extra-judicially execute anyone anywhere in the world as long as they are deemed an enemy, and this includes journalists. This in the context of drone legislation.

The victims of the out of control U.S. state, doing anything to ensure that it avoids accountability are not limited to WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. They include thousands of smaller and unheard of individuals, like myself who have been marginalized and have not had the resources that WikiLeaks has had to fight back. I myself was told to shut down my site by U.S. officials and had my passport revoked, so I can tell you firsthand they will stop at nothing to shut up anyone who is able to expose their crimes and anyone who can get at the truth.

It can only be a criminal government that fears and persecutes proponents of transparency and it can only be a criminal government that attempts to silence the press while at the same time refusing to prosecute those responsible for crimes that are revealed.

The criminal government in the United States has already stifled the press to the point that many Americans now seek alternative and foreign media in order to learn the truth and this has been a trend for years now and the further stifling that will occur with the latest revelations surrounding AP will only make that worse.

Would I write what I have just written for an American publication? That’s a no-brainer.