Showing posts with label press. Show all posts
Showing posts with label press. Show all posts

Sunday, August 17, 2025

Press freedom in Canada restricted in 2024, says U.S. State Dept. report

The U.S. State Department's annual global survey of human rights included "credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression and press freedom" in Canada during 2024.  

2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Canada | U.S. Department of State | Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor | Executive Summary 

"There were no significant changes in the human rights situation in Canada during the year. Significant human rights issues included credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists and activists.... The law provided for freedom of expression, including for members of the press and other media, and the government generally respected this right. An independent media, an effective judiciary, and a functioning democratic political system combined to promote freedom of expression, including for media members, although significant curtailments of press freedom remained.

  • The law criminalized 'hate speech' in any public place and defined it as communication that incited hatred against any identifiable group where such incitement was likely to lead to a breach of the peace or communication that willfully promoted hatred against any identifiable group, other than in private conversation. The maximum penalty was two years’ imprisonment.
  • The public media and majority of private media were substantially dependent on government sources of funding for their activities. Government intervention in the media market favored means of communication that did not diverge from government-suggested bounds of political speech, and government policy and practices often disadvantaged independent media. 
  • The government used a variety of mechanisms to fund public and private sector media in the country, ranging from direct grants and tax credits to mandatory payments and funds collected from broadcasters, streaming services, and news platforms, but distributed or regulated by the government. News organizations faced direct and indirect pressure to conform their political speech in order to gain or maintain access to these funds, leading to self-censorship. Independent news organizations that did not take government funds faced a substantial market disadvantage.
  • During the year, the Online News Act of 2023 came into force. The law required large digital media platforms pay news businesses when their content appeared on the platform. The law empowered the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission to set mandatory bargaining guidelines between platforms and news businesses and to otherwise enforce and set regulatory guidance for the act, including codes of conduct and eligibility of news businesses to participate, powers which could be used to discriminate against political speech or disfavored independent media outlets.
  • In September, a Federal Court judge upheld the government’s decision to disqualify an independent news organization from journalism tax credits. The organization was one of the few in the country that produced critical reporting on the government’s response to protests of the COVID-19 lockdowns.
  • In March, the government announced a grant of 58.8 million Canadian dollars (CAD) ($43.2 million) to extend the Local Journalism Initiative to 2027 that funded media organizations to hire journalists or pay freelance journalists to produce civic journalism for “underserved communities” across the country. The funding brought total government support for initiative to CAD 94.7 million ($69.6 million) over eight years since its launch in 2019. Independent media organizations without access to these funds faced increased market pressure. The Changing Narrative Fund revenue stream of the initiative, announced during the year, prioritized funding for hiring journalists in the 'Indigenous, Black, racialized, ethno-religious minority, people with disabilities and 2SLGBTQI+ communities,' discriminating against journalists who fell outside of these favored categories.
  • In January, Edmonton police arrested Indigenous journalist Brandi Morin on assignment with Ricochet Media for obstruction for conducting interviews with residents at an Indigenous-led homeless encampment when police arrived to dismantle the encampment. Police detained Morin for several hours, although Morin had identified herself as a journalist. Authorities dropped charges against Morin in  March after prosecutors determined no public interest was served in pursuing the case.
  • In May, a member of parliament of the governing party and other officials allegedly attempted to use supposed security threats to impose unreasonably high security charges (more than the costs of the events otherwise) on two independent media organizations’ events. The organizations alleged that they were targeted for their political speech and had a lawsuit pending.
  • Rather than participate in government-mandated bargaining, some American digital platforms announced that they would no longer make news content available to Canadian users, leading to substantial censorship of news content including local news content. The opposition party described the Online News Act as a government censorship law, because of its effects on the character and quality of the country’s news reporting.


Chris Barber and Tamara Lich. CBC photos.

  • A trial of two organizers of the 2022 'Freedom Convoy' concluded during the year. A verdict was still pending at year’s end. In response to the 2022 convoy (which protested draconian lockdown measures that substantially damaged the communities and economic livelihoods of many Canadians), the government took the unprecedented step of invoking the Emergencies Act, leading to large-scale social media censorship and debanking. In January, the Federal Court ruled that the government’s imposition of the Emergencies Act was unreasonable and violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The federal government appealed the decision.
  • The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) continued its legal efforts to block an independent news outlet’s Access to Information request for CBC’s communications with American social media platform Twitter (now X) dating to 2018. The news outlet previously published investigative reporting alleging that the CBC exerted pressure on Twitter/X to censor it and other disfavored news outlets over political speech.

Read more: https://www.state.gov/reports/2024-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/canada

Thursday, September 9, 2021

Canada's Rebel News wins debate exclusion suit

We sued Trudeau's debates commission today — judge to announce verdict tomorrow! | Rebel News - Ezra Levant:

September 07, 2021 - "I just got out of a three-hour hearing at the Federal Court of Canada. We are suing Trudeau’s hand-picked debates commission, because they banned our Rebel News journalists from attending the leaders' debates this week....

"The judge presiding over the case — Justice Elizabeth Heneghan — ... repeatedly took issue with Trudeau’s case, challenging many of their arguments. As the hours went by, I was more and more hopeful. Would we actually beat Trudeau again, and strike a win for freedom of the press, like we did when he banned us back in 2019 and the Federal Court sided with us?...

"Our lawyer, Chad Williamson, did an excellent job. He was outnumbered seven to one — Trudeau sent an army of lawyers to block us....  Chad did a great job standing up for freedom — not just for our reporters, but for all Canadians."

Read more: https://www.rebelnews.com/leaders_debates_commission_court_ruling_justice_heneghan_ruling


Rebel News wins court battle to cover leaders’ debates, will accredit 11 journalists | National Post - Micke Blanchard, Canadian Press:

September 08, 2021 - "A judge in the Federal Court of Canada has ruled the Leaders’ Debates Commission incorrectly denied Rebel News Network accreditation to Wednesday’s French-language and Thursday’s English-language competition between the major party leaders. Justice Elizabeth Heneghan’s decision ... means Rebel News reporters will be accredited to attend the debate. While the debate broadcast can be watched by anyone, journalists require accreditation so they can take part afterward in the questioning of the leaders.... Rebel News had been granted an emergency hearing Tuesday in the court after the debates commission denied several of its journalists the credentials needed to fully cover the debates."

Read more: https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/election-2021/judge-to-rule-today-whether-rebel-news-may-be-accredited-to-cover-the-leaders-debates

Sunday, April 14, 2019

How WikiLeaks revolutionized journalism

WikiLeaks designed 21st century model for leak-based journalism in a wired age | The Japan Times:

April 12, 2019 - "Using cryptography and virtual drop boxes, Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks created a revolutionary new model for media to lure massive leaks from whistleblowers, exposing everything from U.S. military secrets to wealthy tax dodgers’ illicit offshore accounts.

"Assange’s arrest in London Thursday on a U.S. extradition request to face computer crime charges could spell the end of 13-year-old WikiLeaks. But his legacy will live long in the world’s media. News outlets and journalists everywhere can now offer potential sources encrypted apps and secure virtual mailboxes to receive secrets that were once divulged by discreet whispers, furtive phone calls and unmarked manila envelopes.

"Skilled at hacking and cryptography — and motivated by a deep distrust of traditional institutions — Australia-born Assange applied his libertarian streak to the challenge of breaking government secrecy. In 2006 he built an online platform that offered an anonymous, encrypted path for leaking computerized files without fear of exposure. Leaks have forever been crucial currency in journalism. But no one had before created a convenient, relatively easy-to-use electronic drop box that could almost instantly, with absolute secrecy, take delivery of gigabytes of documents. And he did it at a ripe time, when the wired world was emerging and social media were taking off....

"WikiLeaks obtained documents exposing the Kenyan leader’s corruption, the secret operating rules for the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison camp, and offshore banking records from a Swiss bank. It began scooping mainstream media on stories ranging from secret climate-change discussions to Iran’s nuclear activities and Icelandic banking fraud.

"In 2010, U.S. Army intelligence official Chelsea Manning ... began secretly feeding hundreds of thousands of classified files to WikiLeaks. They showed evidence of possible war crimes by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.... Assange partnered with The New York Times, The Guardian, Der Spiegel and others to help sort through and make sense of the Manning material. WikiLeaks won awards and Assange was put on the cover of Time magazine....

"Almost as soon as he hit that peak, Assange’s star began to fade.... But by 2012 others were already adopting his model of setting up encrypted, anonymous paths for leakers to contribute documents. WikiLeaks copycat sites opened in different countries. Journalists became trained in the use of encryption and secret file transfers.... U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden ... used the encrypted communications Assange helped popularize to communicate with the journalists who collaborated with him.

"In 2013 the Freedom of the Press Foundation, which had aided WikiLeaks with financing, developed a new anonymous drop box free for anyone to use: SecureDrop.... SecureDrop is important to the most successful WikiLeaks-like operation, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. In recent years it has obtained from leakers millions of financial account files detailing money laundering and tax avoidance from offshore banking centers — digital troves that became known as the 'Panama Papers' and 'Paradise Papers.'”

Read more: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/04/12/world/wikileaks-designed-21st-century-model-leak-based-journalism-wired-age/#.XLNUNtQrLn4
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Friday, November 30, 2018

Canadian gov't budgets $600M to subsidize press

Andrew Coyne: Liberals’ $600M aid package for news media will irrevocably politicize the press | National Post:

November 23, 2018 - "[Newspaper] publishers have long been leading the charge for federal aid... The publishers’ association even went so far as to suggest a model of how the money might be delivered, complete with promises of what sort of coverage they would provide in exchange.

"This week all that effort paid off: a $600-million aid package, tucked in the middle of Wednesday’s economic statement.... In an election year, ... the Liberal government has agreed to supply the nation’s news media with pots of cash....

"[A]n 'independent panel' of journalists will determine who is eligible to receive the government’s cash.... [T]hey will be scrupulously non-partisan, of unimpeachable respectability, and dependably progressive.

"At least, they will until the Tories are elected. At that point, the new government will be presented with a familiar choice: keep on the Liberal appointees, and be congratulated for their statesmanlike impartiality, or replace them with others of a more right-wing hue, and suddenly arouse those hitherto-dormant fears about the freedom of the press....

"Until now, politicians have had to suffer journalists’ lectures to the effect that taking campaign donations from corporations and other vested interests might influence their judgment.... We will have to shut up about that now, as we will have to shut up about bailouts of other industries, and handouts to interest groups. We will simply have no standing to object to any of it.

"In time, it will no longer occur to us. The money the government is giving us is not going to solve our problems. It is only going to ensure we put off confronting them. Before long we will be back for more — after the same mutual dance of veiled threat and implicit promise.

"Perhaps some news organizations will refuse the government lolly. They will find themselves at a substantial competitive disadvantage to those who don’t. As of course will all those who are refused ... because they are not 'professional' enough. Perhaps they will be deemed too 'ideological' by our panel of progressive worthies? Or perhaps they will be too small, too unusual, scrappy startups practicing journalism in a form unrecognizable to the sorts of people likely to fill such a committee.

"To hell with it. To hell with all of it. No newspaper publisher should have anything to do with this plan. And no journalist worthy of the name should go anywhere near that accursed panel."

Read more: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/andrew-coyne-liberals-600m-aid-package-for-news-media-will-irrevocably-politicize-the-press
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UPDATE, Feb. 2022: In undated video, Trudeau jokes about bribing media with aid package

Sunday, April 8, 2018

Joseph Brodsky's idea of free poetry

by George J. Dance

I have no problems with people immigrating here to escape bad stuff in their native countries; but a sore point with me is the few who try to bring some of that bad stuff with them. That sore got poked this weekend while I was working on my poetry wiki, formatting the article on Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky.

Brodsky was born and grew up in Leningrad in the then Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.). At age 15 he began writing and translating poetry, which he would circulate in samizdat ("self-published") manuscripts or typescripts among his friends. He would also join other poets in giving free, impromptu streetcorner readings, further adding to his reputation.

However, Brodsky was not able to have his work published. From 1955 to 1972 (when he was exiled from the U.S.S.R.) he had just a handful of poems appear in Soviet anthologies. He had no poetry collections published in the country. Nor did he ever appear at any organized poetry performances. Why not? Because the government controlled all of the book publishing, and all of the performance events, and the government did not want his work read or heard. Brodsky could not get around that prohibition by taking his work to a competitor, because there were no competitors.

Brodsky was not the only poet frozen out by the state; Anna Akhmatova, Osip Mandelstam, and Osip's wife Nadezhda, all had their careers warped in the same way. For Brodsky, though, the Soviets found a way to compound the injury: because he was not being published, he was arrested, tried, and briefly imprisoned in a labor camp for "parasitism".

Fortunately for Brodsky, enough of his work had been smuggled out to the capitalist west that his books were being published there; so that when he was forced into exile, he found a reputation and funds waiting for him. He quickly got a professorship in the United States, where he settled, eventually becoming U.S. Poet Laureate in 1991.

Besides his ceremonial duties, the U.S. Poet Laureate traditionally creates his own public project. What was Brodsky's? "During his term as the Poet Laureate, Brodsky promoted the idea of bringing the Anglo-American poetic heritage to a wider American audience by distributing free poetry anthologies to the public through a government-sponsored program." That program never materialized; but what if it had?

Poetry, as Brodsky noted, is not widely read in the U.S. Few if any poetry anthologies turn a profit on sales to the public. What makes them profitable to publishers is the sales to educational institutions that assign them to their students. Now imagine that the government enters the field with an anthology that it gives away free; whether one it prints itself, or a privately published one that it selects, makes no difference. How many schools and universites, faced with the choice of buying 100's of expensive books or getting similar ones for free, would choose the first option? Very few; but that would be the only market left for every competitor to the program. Even sales to the public would be cut for those competitors, if readers could simply pick up a free anthology instead. The result would be the government anthology monopolizing the market.

Anthologies are a way for readers to read a poet's work before buying, and therefore for new poets to reach and build an audience. Under Brodsky's plan, only those selected by the government program would have that opportunity; the rest would have their careers shut down, just as his was shut down by his native government's control of the means of publication.

Of course Brodsky would never be excluded from the government anthology today. Who would? Well, that is the problem: we would never know. Those prevented from publishing, due to the government monopoly, might be free to launch limited careers; but many of them would simply not be heard at all: and we would have no way to even know who they were.

I find it amazing that someone like Brodsky, victimized for years because of a state-monopolized press, would propose taking even the tiniest step to instantiating a similar monopoly in his adopted country.

~~
Reference: "Joseph Brodsky," Penny's Poetry Pages, April 8, 2018. Web, April 8, 2018.

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Detroit News endorses Gary Johnson

Endorsement: Libertarian Gary Johnson for president - Detroit News, editorial:

September 29, 2016 - "Since its founding in 1873, The Detroit News has backed a Republican every time it has made a presidential endorsement..... We abandon that long and estimable tradition this year for one reason: Donald J. Trump....Trump is unprincipled, unstable and quite possibly dangerous. He can not be president.

"His Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, has an impressive resume and a presidential bearing.... But character matters. Her career-long struggles with honesty and ethics and calculating, self-serving approach to politics trouble us deeply....

"We recognize the Libertarian candidate is the longest of long shots.... But this is an endorsement of conscience, reflecting our confidence that Johnson would be a competent and capable president and an honorable one.

"Gary Johnson has excelled at public service. In his eight years as the Republican governor of New Mexico, he cut taxes while balancing the budget, and left the state in better fiscal shape than when he arrived. He also was a champion of school choice, and the state under his guidance made great strides in improving education....

"Like this newspaper, he holds that an individual should have maximum freedom to navigate his or her personal decision-making, with little meddling from the government.

"His position on trade is the most responsible of any of the candidates in the race. He voices a healthy respect for free markets, and recognizes that unrestricted trade — absent crony capitalism — is a boon to the economy. He is the only candidate who would sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal....

"Johnson extends his free market philosophy to immigration, taking a position we’ve long advocated that immigration policy should match the demands of the economy. 'Make available to anyone who wants to come into this country a work visa,' Johnson says. 'And a work visa should entail a background check and a social security card so that applicable taxes get paid. Don’t put the government in charge of quotas. That’s one of the reasons for 11 million undocumented workers.'

"Our apprehension about Johnson rests with foreign policy. He holds to conventional libertarian non-interventionism. But he understands America’s position in the world.... He pledges to honor all existing treaties and obligations, and supports NATO, though he wants the European nations to live up to their commitment to pay 2 percent of GDP for the common defense; a reasonable expectation.....

"In abandoning the GOP nominee, The News has plenty of company among traditional Republicans and conservatives.... We urge readers who share our disillusionment with the presidential ballot and disdain for the GOP nominee to join us in casting a conscience vote for Gary Johnson."

Read more: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/editorials/2016/09/28/endorse-johnson-president/91254412/
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Monday, September 12, 2016

Winston-Salem Journal endorses Gary Johnson

Decision 2016: Gary Johnson for president - Winston-Salem Journal: Editorials:

September 11, 2016 - "We’ve surprised even ourselves with this endorsement, our first for a Libertarian for president. But the timing has never been better for this particular Libertarian, Gary Johnson of New Mexico. He is everything the presidential candidates for the two major parties are not, thank God.

"Johnson and his running mate, William 'Bill' Weld of Massachusetts, were both popular, effective Republican governors who worked well with Democrats. They are principled and honorable in a time when our country sorely needs such qualities.... We join many Americans in being sick of the status quo in American politics, particularly presidential politics, that has far drifted from the bedrock ideals of our fabulous Founders. On this day, by endorsing Gary Johnson, we issue a challenge to change that status quo.

"This Westerner’s strong, common-sense record of being fiscally conservative and socially progressive matches our editorial board’s emphasis, as well as his concentration on small government, and, best of all, freedom. We suspect his stances mirror that of many other Americans.

"We are recommending Johnson on this early date because, as he has acknowledged, it’s crucial that his ticket be included on the presidential debate schedule that starts Sept. 26.... We make this early endorsement today in hopes it will help persuade the Commission on Presidential Debates to include Johnson, even if he falls short of the required number, a hope we share with a sister paper, the Richmond Times-Dispatch....

"On public education, he supports more local control. We agree, although we object to his emphasis on eliminating the federal Department of Education and Common Core. On the environment, we like his emphasis on reasonable regulation and his objection to politicians doing the bidding of lobbyists. He has good ideas on taxes, including eliminating double-taxation on small business.

"We like his emphasis on criminal-justice reform, especially on draconian and unequal drug laws, although we are not with him yet on the legalization of recreational marijuana. We like Johnson’s commitment to common-sense immigration reform that would include a better system of work visas, background checks and undocumented immigrants paying their fair share of taxes.

"Johnson does have much to learn on foreign policy. But we like his emphasis on a strong military, and that he says we can’t be the world’s police, especially with all the domestic problems in our country. War, he rightly says, must be authorized by Congress through a transparent process. And he emphasizes better care for our veterans."

Read more: http://www.journalnow.com/opinion/editorials/decision-gary-johnson-for-president/article_7351cdb6-327e-5cf0-b0d2-9bff7ab6d874.html
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Monday, September 5, 2016

Richmond Times-Dispatch endorses Johnson

Richmond Times-Dispatch endorses Gary Johnson for president - Richmond Times-Dispatch: OUR OPINION:

September 3, 2016 - "Gary Johnson is a former, two-term governor of New Mexico and a man who built from scratch a construction company that eventually employed more than 1,000 people before he sold it in 1999. He possesses substantial executive experience in both the private and the public sectors.

"More important, he’s a man of good integrity, apparently normal ego and sound ideas. Sadly, in the 2016 presidential contest, those essential qualities make him an anomaly — though they are the foundations for solid leadership and trustworthy character. (At 63, he is also the youngest candidate by more than half a decade — and is polling well among truly young voters.)

"As the nominee of the Libertarian Party, Johnson is expected to be on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. He is, in every respect, a legitimate and reasonable contender for the presidency — but only if the voters give him a fair hearing. And that can happen only if he is allowed to participate in the presidential debates that begin on Sept. 26 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. If the Commission on Presidential Debates wants to perform a real service to its country, it will invite Gary Johnson onto the big stage....

"Johnson’s clear and consistent support for limited government, free enterprise, social tolerance and individual freedom appeals to our own philosophical leanings. An examination of his policy positions revealed that they often match our longstanding editorial creed....

"But our final decision to endorse the Johnson/Weld ticket, and to do so with great confidence and enthusiasm, came only after Johnson met with the editorial board last Monday morning. We found him to be knowledgeable but unscripted, reasonable and good-humored, self-assured but free from arrogance, willing and able to address every question, consistent in his beliefs without being dogmatic, even-tempered, curious — and in all respects optimistically, realistically presidential.

"We have over the years interviewed hundreds of politicians — local, state, and national — and there’s no doubt that Johnson belongs in the major leagues, and on the debate stage this fall. He is a skilled and experienced leader, an able communicator, an intelligent man."

Read more: http://www.richmond.com/opinion/our-opinion/article_b79cc2b6-8ed5-532c-92eb-4a37e779c433.html
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Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Guardian and Post win Pulitzer for NSA revelations

Guardian and Washington Post win Pulitzer prize for NSA revelations | Media | The Guardian - Ed Pilkington:

April 14, 2014 - "The Guardian and the Washington Post have been awarded the highest accolade in US journalism, winning the Pulitzer prize for public service for their groundbreaking articles on the National Security Agency’s surveillance activities based on the leaks of Edward Snowden.

"The award, announced in New York on Monday, comes 10 months after the Guardian published the first report based on the leaks from Snowden, revealing the agency’s bulk collection of US citizens’ phone records....

"The Pulitzer committee praised the Guardian for its 'revelation of widespread secret surveillance by the National Security Agency, helping through aggressive reporting to spark a debate about the relationship between the government and the public over issues of security and privacy'.

"Snowden, in a statement, said: 'Today's decision is a vindication for everyone who believes that the public has a role in government. We owe it to the efforts of the brave reporters and their colleagues who kept working in the face of extraordinary intimidation, including the forced destruction of journalistic materials, the inappropriate use of terrorism laws, and so many other means of pressure to get them to stop what the world now recognises was work of vital public importance'."

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/apr/14/guardian-washington-post-pulitzer-nsa-revelations
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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Koch Industries plans to buy Tribune newspaper chain

Koch Brothers Making Play for Tribune’s Newspapers - NYTimes.com - Amy Chozick, New York Times:

April 20, 2013 - "Three years ago, Charles and David Koch, the billionaire industrialists and supporters of libertarian causes, ... laid out a three-pronged, 10-year strategy to shift the country toward a smaller government with less regulation and taxes.

"The first two pieces of the strategy — educating grass-roots activists and influencing politics — were not surprising, given the money they have given to policy institutes and political action groups. But the third one was: media....

"Now, Koch Industries, the sprawling private company of which Charles G. Koch serves as chairman and chief executive, is exploring a bid to buy the Tribune Company’s eight regional newspapers, including The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, The Orlando Sentinel and The Hartford Courant.

"By early May, the Tribune Company is expected to send financial data to serious suitors in what will be among the largest sales of newspapers by circulation in the country. Koch Industries is among those interested, said several people with direct knowledge of the sale who spoke on the condition they not be named. Tribune emerged from bankruptcy on Dec. 31 and has hired JPMorgan Chase and Evercore Partners to sell its print properties."

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/business/media/koch-brothers-making-play-for-tribunes-newspapers.html?_r=1&
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Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Gary Johnson for president | Chattanooga Free Press

Gary Johnson for president | Chattanooga Free Press | timesfreepress.com:

October 24, 2012 - "For more than 80 years, the Free Press editorial page has been a voice for free market economic philosophies, personal responsibility and limited, responsible government. Endorsing the presidential candidate who most thoroughly represents those values has been an important function of the Free Press editorial page for nearly as long.

"For most of those election cycles, we have endorsed Republican candidates for president.... This election, however, the Republican Party nominee has failed to demonstrate a consistent commitment to conservative principles.... Mitt Romney is too flawed to earn the Free Press' endorsement.... Romney may be less eager to tax, spend, attack personal freedoms and disregard the constitutional limits on government than his Democratic opponent, President Barack Obama, but only slightly....

"As a result, the Free Press editorial page endorses Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson for President of the United States."

"Read more: http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/oct/24/1024b-fp1-gary-johnson-for-president/?opinionfreepress
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