Demise of a Free Press 

From Free Press To Despot's Shill
 

"Thus, the liberty of the press is infinitely more valuable amongst
democratic nations than amongst all others; it is the only cure for the
evils which equality may produce.  Equality sets men apart and weakens them;
but the press places a powerful weapon within every man's reach, which the
weakest and loneliest of them all may use.  Equality deprives a man of the
support of his connections; but the press enables him to summon all his
fellow-countrymen and all his fellow-men to his assistance.  Printing has
accelerated the progress of equality, and it is also one of its best
correctives."  Alexis de Tocqueville.  (1835).  From, Democracy in America .

As power has centralized in America over the past 100 years, the vitality of
the free and enthusiastic press has waned.  As our politicians have become
rich and aristocratic patricians, the press has increasingly become personal
publicists or personal enemies of the rich and powerful.  As government has
embraced race and sex preferences, the press has accepted censorship of
words and ideas.  As politicians and bureaucrats have abused the
Constitution and rights of individuals to gain the support of environmental
and animal rights radicals and as courts have allowed the centralization of
power and weakening of citizen rights, the press merely reports and avoids
controversy (that is until recently!)

This is a tale of government corruption and how the press has become the
worst sort of enabler of that corruption.  Not only does the "press" no
longer "uncover" corruption, they have evolved into disguised public
relations forums for those who should be charged and incarcerated for the
very crimes with which they threaten the citizenry.

I have written extensively in the past about the theft of Millions of
dollars of Hunting and Fishing Excise Taxes by the US Fish and Wildlife
Service from the State hunting and fishing programs to introduce wolves and
open an office in California - after Congress had specifically refused to
authorize or fund these things.  No one was ever punished, no one even
missed a bonus, the money was never repaid, and perhaps most egregious of
all - the state fish and wildlife agencies from whom the money was stolen
NEVER EVEN ASKED FOR IT TO BE REPLACED.

I have written extensively about the Millions of dollars spent on an
imaginary bird and all the public land restrictions, private property
purchased and eased with government funds and the public works delayed and
prevented.  The Ivory-billed Woodpecker has been extinct for 60 years but,
like Spotted Owls and Red-cockaded Woodpeckers et al, they were merely
surrogates for radical environmental and animal rights agendas that built
bureaucracies and extended political reigns of soulless politicians.

I have written about the more than a Billion dollars from the fishing excise
taxes that has gone to Louisiana over the past 14 years for "wetland
restoration".  In fact the money has simply been doled out to the County
politicians to do what they will (in Louisiana that covers a wide spectrum)
and because the money has never been nor never will be audited we can all
chirp in with the Louisiana Governor and the New Orleans Mayor to whine
about how inept the Federal government aid system is.

These are but three examples of corruption that I have explained and
circulated and tried to gain the attention of the press about, all to no
avail.  This has led to a certain cynicism on my part about the ability of
the press to perform the important service to the Republic that de
Tocqueville noted over 150 years ago.  Therefore it is with an indignant
wrath that I note the following current events in the press of my hometown,
Washington , DC .

There are two papers in my hometown.  The Washington Post is the liberal
paper: they attack anything Republican or conservative.  They never reported
on or met an environmental or animal rights assault that they did not
embrace.  The Washington Times is the conservative paper: they attack
anything Democrat or liberal.  In the past they were often skeptical and
even occasionally hostile to the machinations of the environmental and
animal rights radicals and the bureaucrats and politicians attached to them
like remoras on sharks.  That was in the past.  Today, both papers publish
the gross distortions used by the radicals to justify centralizing power and
limiting individual rights from property rights and public land use and
management to rural clearances and gargantuan forest fires.

It is now much worse.  While I have come to accept that the Post is merely a
public relations organ for the radicals and that the Times is no longer
skeptical of Federal agencies or pandering politicians: I have seen a
horrifying new role for the press that is little distinguished from the
press of Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe or Putin of Russia.  That is to say,
shills that appear to be "reporting" while really serving as propaganda
organs.

Last week I wrote about a story of corruption in Maryland reported by these
two papers.  The newly elected (Democrat) Governor had fired a state
employee who had questioned a quickie state purchase of a farm for about a
million dollars over the (state) appraisal.  The farm owner had contributed
to the Governors campaign and the "new" Secretary of Natural Resources was a
business partner of the farm owner.  (See my article LOUISIANA , EARMARKS,
STANDING, & PRESIDENT BUSH of 17 July at  http://jimbeers.blogster.com).

I noted that the farm was being purchased from a "U.S. Land Alliance".  I
asked about the " Alliance " and was it getting a commission?  Was the
" Alliance " an easement holder on the land (probable since they were signing
off on the deed)?  What tax-exempt status was allowed the " Alliance " and the
farm owner at the time of easement and since?  Were there state and/or
Federal funds involved in the " Alliance " easement purchase?  How much public
funding has already gone to the " Alliance " and the owner"?  Was it a state
appraisal?  If so it was probably high to begin with (no one wants to get
fired you know) and shouldn't there be a private appraisal to compare with
the state appraisal that was $1M below what the state paid anyway?

But the press didn't care.  The politicians, state and Federal, didn't care.
The agencies that dole out the funds to the "Alliances" certainly didn't
care.  The state agencies that "guard" things like hunting and fishing didn't
care.  The sportsmen that will lose hunting areas and watch more of their
money drained away for anti-hunting purposes didn't care.  Government
"auditors" didn't care".  Well, you get the point.  The press no longer digs
into such things so the politicians merely divert us with bread and circuses
like Emperors of old and we go along and forget.

After the lack of interest in the Republican paper going after the Maryland
Democrats much less a free press going after corruption I should have
learned to lower my expectations but alas I find that hard to do.  Thus I
was once again upset this morning when the Times ran an Outdoor Column
titled Sturgeon Could Make A Return To Chesapeake Bay.  The outdoor editor
waxed poetic about how "In many years past, sturgeons were found in great
numbers along the entire Atlantic coast, but there are few if any spawning
fish left in Maryland or in neighboring states. For some reason, however,
young migrant sturgeon from other systems come into the Chesapeake Bay every
year, and some of them are collected."  He then proceeds to describe a
"sturgeon restoration program" that has "hopes of restoring the once
plentiful species in local waters".  This program is administered by the
Maryland Fisheries Service of the Maryland DNR.  Spawning fish are held at
the " University of Maryland Aquatic and Restoration Ecology Laboratory".

Then the part that really got me going, "Active partners in the Maryland DNR
sturgeon restoration project include the US Fish and Wildlife Service,
Maryland Fisheries Resource Office, Mirant Mid-Atlantic Power Company and
the University of Maryland .  The DNR also cooperates with the Interstate
Commission on the Potomac River Basin , the Virginia Institute of Marine
Science, Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control
and the District of Columbia Fisheries Office".

I found this article particularly galling with good reason.  The Shortnose
sturgeon of the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay has been on the Endangered
Species List for over 35 years.  For more than 20 years (probably more like
50 years) the US Army Corps of Engineers has been dumping tons of toxic
waste twice a week on the only (and major) spawning ground for sturgeon in
this ecosystem.  The very toxic waste is the settled material from the
Washington DC water system just above Georgetown University in the District
of Columbia .  The ponds are cleaned and the effluent dumped at night into
the Potomac River at 3 sites (one of them the sturgeon spawning area).  The
settling ponds are sited on old chemical and biological weapons testing
sites from WWI.  Anywhere else; EPA/FWS/NPS/NMFS/ etc./etc. would have
mandated disposal by truck to an incinerator but the rich and famous in
those neighborhoods didn't want all the truck traffic so dumping went on at
night for years. The drainpipes are underground and in streams and concrete
waterways that all cross a National Park to get to the "Nation's River".
Anywhere else in the nation such actions would result in prison terms and
fines of enormous proportion.  In Washington such actions are venues for
"career development".

When a small, under-funded, one-man conservation organization with small
contributors went to Federal court eight years ago to stop the dumping the
government delayed and obfuscated and transferred employees and destroyed
documents and generally came as clean as a box turtle at a rock concert.
The case went on for years and the conservation organization went broke and
disappeared.  During the court case the conservation organization asked for
others to join in the suit.  US Fish and Wildlife Service (many of whose top
managers fished there on slow afternoons) was silent.  EPA was silent.  The
National Park Service (that silenced employees) was silent.  DC Fisheries
didn't answer the phone.  The state fish and wildlife agency lobbyists
commuted by the site daily and said nary a word.  The National Marine
Fisheries Service that administers fish like sturgeon on the Endangered List
was AWOL.  Maryland agencies were busy elsewhere.  Virginia was invisible.
Also completely absent were the Trout Unlimiteds and the Tackle
Manufacturers, and all the folks that "protect" fishing. Likewise the Ducks
Unlimiteds and Pheasants Forever and Rocky Mountain Elk bunches et al that
like their Trout Unlimited sisters wax poetic about "Invasive Species" and
"Native Ecosystems" etc. were nowhere to be found as they flew in and out of
the nation's capital.  Then there were the Sierra Clubs and TNC's, and
Wilderness bunches et al and their sisters in HSUS and the Animal Outfits
that can fill a boxcar with reasons to stop a project or government action
at a drop of a hat, they too saw no reason to save the sturgeons or clean up
the river.

After several years of money-draining lawyer games, the EPA and US Army
Corps of Engineers came up with a plan to stop the pollution in six years so
the court quietly dismissed the case and all went silent.  That is until
today.

Now if I was writing this simply because I was upset at this warm and cuddly
paean to a bunch of bureaucracies that ignored the demise of the sturgeons
for decades to protect their agencies and their careers and now have "come
to the Lord" you would just say "sour grapes".  But until 3 PM today I was
just silently fuming and had no intention of wasting precious time arguing
with a paper more interested in selling advertising than fighting for
principles and freedom.  Then at 3, the mail arrived.

I received two big and identical government envelopes.  What they contained
brought me up out of my chair.  It was an EPA Request for Comments regarding
the Compliance Agreement issued to the Court in 2003.  Supposedly the
government agencies agreed to stop the  dumping of toxic waste in the
Potomac by the US Army Corps of Engineers.  Two things are being done: 1)
the compliance deadline will be extended from 2009 to 2010, and 2.) the
interim 2008 compliance deadline will be eliminated.

What is going on is anyone's guess.  Who could you turn to?  The Court?  The
Federal agencies?  The state agencies?  The politicians? The "conservation"
organizations?  The enviro/animal rights radicals? The press?

The Press?  I am not upset merely about this compliance chicanery, I have
come to expect the worst from these government agencies and I am seldom
disappointed.  What has upset me a great deal is this sturgeon PUFF-PIECE
(from a paper that used to provide insight and skepticism) about how these
agencies are such warm and fuzzy tinker belles ON THE SAME DAY THAT EPA IS
ANNOUNCING THE BREAKING OF THE PALTRY COMPLIANCE AGREEMENT THAT HAS ENDANGERED THE STURGEONS IN THE FIRST PLACE!

I gave up on coincidences years ago when I was a law enforcement officer.
As far as I am concerned all those agencies and EPA knew it was going to be
a possible "problem" when EPA cancelled interim compliance and began an
extension process for the court settlement to allow the dumping to continue.
Today the conservation organization that started this is a memory and all
those bureaucrats who retired to gated communities and ignored the problem
to begin with are succeeded by a new cohort of bureaucrats that "head things
off".  How do you "head off" any possible bad publicity about more delay and
obfuscation about egregious environmental pollution by a government agency?
Why you get the media to do pieces about how lucky we all are to have X,Y, &
Z agencies "saving" our (fill-in-the-blank).  The only thing missing was
some young lady in a government uniform holding up a net with a young
sturgeon in it for all of us to go, "ooh" and "ahh" over.

It is troubling enough when the press and the media are slanted and
one-sided about these matters.  When they run propaganda for the government
to quell future concerns, we must all fear where we are headed. Make no
mistake that these environmental/animal rights cabals with politicians and
bureaucrats mean to convert us into a despotic oligarchy run by elites.
When they are enabled by the press it only makes what we are up against that
much stronger.  If the internet and blogs are unable to fill this void de
Tocqueville's concerns may prove prophetic.

Jim Beers
18 July 2007

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- Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist,
Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow.
He was stationed in North Dakota , Minnesota , Nebraska , New York City , and
Washington DC .  He also served as a US Navy Line Officer in the western
Pacific and on Adak , Alaska in the Aleutian Islands .  He has worked for the
Utah Fish & Game, Minneapolis Police Department, and as a Security
Supervisor in Washington , DC .  He testified three times before Congress;
twice regarding the theft by the US Fish & Wildlife Service of $45 to 60
Million from State fish and wildlife funds and once in opposition to
expanding Federal Invasive Species authority.  He resides in Centreville ,
Virginia with his wife of many decades.