The mayor of a small town in Kansas reportedly suspended the police chief who led the August raids of a local newspaper&#8217;s office and homes of its owners, including a 98-year-old woman who died less than 24 hours later, in a move that garnered national attention from news organizations and freedom of press advocates.
Marion Mayor Dave Mayfield <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-09-30/the-police-chief-who-led-a-raid-of-a-small-kansas-newspaper-has-been-suspended" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The Associated Press that he had suspended Chief Gideon Cody on Thursday, who led the August 11 raids on parties involved with the Marion County Record, a family-owned weekly newspaper serving a community about 60 miles north of Wichita.
&#8220;I did indeed suspend chief Cody and I won&#8217;t discuss any details regarding his suspension as it is a personnel matter,&#8221; Mayfield <a href="https://www.komu.com/news/marion-police-chief-suspended-after-raid-of-marion-county-record-newspaper-in-kansas/article_f4d33a18-cb4c-5b06-9d6c-c46d64251a66.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in an email to CNN.
Mayfield&#8217;s decision reportedly comes after previously saying he would take action after reviewing the findings of a state police investigation.
Vice-Mayor Ruth Herbel said suspending Cody is &#8220;the best thing that can happen to Marion right now,&#8221; according to The Associated Press.
&#8220;We can&#8217;t duck our heads until it goes away, because it&#8217;s not going to go away until we do something about it,&#8221; Herbel said, whose home was also searched in the raid.
The Marion County Record was named in a search warrant signed by Marion County Court Magistrate Judge Laura Viar in August which alleged violations of identity theft and &#8220;unlawful acts concerning computers.&#8221;
Authorities searched the home of Eric Meyer, co-owner and publisher of the paper founded more than 150 years ago, and the Marion County Record&#8217;s newsroom after reporters dug into allegations that the police department had turned a blind eye to a local sweet shop owner driving with a suspended license after a DUI.
Four Marion police officers and three sheriff&#8217;s deputies reportedly seized personal cell phones, computers, and other materials at Meyer&#8217;s home and the Marion County Record office, including some unrelated equipment needed to publish.
The police department said it believed a reporter might have committed identity theft in pulling records on the local sweets shop owner, but both the newspaper and the reporter said they only accessed publicly available records.
Authorities also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/video-98-year-old-kansas-newspaper-owner-tells-police-get-out-of-my-house-during-raid" target="_blank" rel="noopener">searched</a> the home of Joan Meyer, the 98-year-old mother of Eric and co-owner of the Marion County Record.
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A <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD-wJ19eVvE&amp;t=93s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">minute-and-a-half clip</a> shows police raiding her house on August 11, where Meyer can be heard shouting at the cops while wearing her robe and slippers and using her walker. She died less than 24 hours later after she collapsed from hours of &#8220;<a href="http://marionrecord.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shock and grief,</a>&#8221; according to the Record.
Her son said he believes the stress and anger she experienced due to the police raid contributed to her death.
The police department reportedly posted on August 12 on Facebook, &#8220;As much as I would like to give everyone details on a criminal investigation I cannot. I believe when the rest of the story is available to the public, the judicial system that is being questioned will be vindicated.&#8221;
Legal experts reportedly believe the search from law enforcement violated a federal privacy law that protects journalists from having their newsrooms searched or a state law protecting journalists from disclosing sources or turning over unpublished material to authorities.
Cody <a href="https://apnews.com/article/newspaper-raid-kansas-affidavit-07d9c856894892bff13cb014248ec866" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> defended the raid in a Facebook post, saying the federal law makes an exception specifically for &#8220;when there is reason to believe the journalist is taking part in the underlying wrongdoing.&#8221;
Mairead Elordi contributed to this report.

Marion Newspaper Raid

Police Chief Who Led Raid On Small Kansas Newspaper Suspended: Reports

First Amendment

Freedom of the Press

Kansas

Media

Newspaper

Police

U.S.

A small-town newspaper in Kansas is raising First Amendment questions on a national level after local police raided its office and homes of staffers on Friday, seizing material linked to alleged identity theft violations.
Marion County Record, a family-owned weekly newspaper published in the midwestern state about 60 miles north of Wichita, was named in a search warrant signed by Marion County Court Magistrate Judge Laura Viar on Friday morning, which alleges violations of identity theft and &#8220;unlawful acts concerning computers.&#8221; CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/13/us/kansas-marion-county-newspaper-police-raid/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
Eric Meyer, co-owner and publisher of the paper founded more than 150 years ago in the small city of Marion, reportedly said four Marion police officers and three sheriff&#8217;s deputies seized personal cell phones, computers, and other materials at his home and Marion County Record office, including some unrelated equipment needed to publish.
&#8220;Our first priority is to be able to publish next week,&#8221; Meyer said. &#8220;But we also want to make sure no other news organization is ever exposed to the Gestapo tactics we witnessed today.&#8221;
Reporter Deb Gruver wrote in a post on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/deb.gruver/posts/pfbid02kTfHmRnP48mknEmNKywchzNT2oMH7ctYsJWD6TZCFxcV1mHgzuGfDPzyzcQFuvrZl" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook</a> she had filed a report with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation that accused Marion, Kansas Police Chief Gideon Cody of re-injuring a previously dislocated finger after he allegedly &#8220;forcibly yanked&#8221; her cell phone from her hand.
&#8220;I thought I lived in the United States,&#8221; Gruver added.
Authorities also searched the home of its 98-year-old co-owner Joan Meyer, who died less than 24 hours later — after she collapsed from hours of &#8220;shock and grief&#8221; that caused her to lose sleep and not eat, the newspaper <a href="http://marionrecord.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
According to the search warrant <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/police-in-kansas-execute-chilling-raid-on-small-town-newspaper-seizing-phones-and-computers-5461508" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> by The Epoch Times, the judge authorized police to seize material related to identity theft allegations of Kari Newell, a local coffee shop business owner. The newspaper reportedly received a tip that Newell allegedly drives without a valid driver&#8217;s license after a traffic offense in 2008.
Although a reporter verified the information, Meyer told <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/08/11/police-stage-chilling-raid-on-marion-county-newspaper-seizing-computers-records-and-cellphones/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">local media</a> he decided not to publish the story. Instead, he notified the police based on suspicions of being set up by an unknown source. When authorities contacted Newell, she allegedly accused the Record at a city council meeting of illegally obtaining and disseminating personal information that only law enforcement, private investigators, and insurance agencies could access.
Meyer then published an article sequencing the timeline of events on Thursday, less than 24 hours before police executed the search warrant.
&#8220;Not only did they have information that was illegal for them to obtain in the manner in which they did, but they sent it out as well,&#8221; Newell told CNN, adding the paper published the story &#8220;strictly out of malice and retribution for me asking him to exit my establishment.&#8221;
Earlier this month, the publisher said he and reporter Phyllis Zorn went to Newell&#8217;s coffee shop for a public meeting event with US Representative Jake LaTurner (R-KS) but were told to leave by the local police chief at the request of Newell.
Newell reportedly said she asked Meyer and Zorn to leave out of concerns the constituents would face the risk of being misquoted by the Record, which she said: &#8220;has a long-standing reputation for twisting and contorting comments within our community.&#8221;
Newell described the situation to The New York Times as the Record violating her privacy rights instead of exercising the First Amendment.
&#8220;There&#8217;s a huge difference between vindictive and vindication,&#8221; Newell <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/13/business/media/kansas-marion-newspaper-police-raid.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. &#8220;I firmly believe that this was a vindictive move, full of malice. And I hope, in the end, I receive vindication.&#8221;
But Meyer reportedly plans on suing the city of Marion and the individuals involved in the raid while raising constitutional concerns that federal law protects authorities from searching and seizing materials from journalists.
Although authorities typically need to obtain a subpoena to seize materials, Marion County police chief Cody told CNN that there are exceptions in limited circumstances to bypass a subpoena when &#8220;there is reason to believe the journalist is taking part in the underlying wrongdoing.&#8221;
&#8220;I believe when the rest of the story is available to the public, the judicial system that is being questioned will be vindicated,&#8221; Cody told The New York Times.
Emily Bradbury, executive director of the Kansas Press Association, called the move a dangerous attack on press freedom in the US.
&#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of healthy tension between the government and newspapers, but this?&#8221; Bradbury told The New York Times. &#8220;This is not right, this is wrong, this cannot be allowed to stand.&#8221;
Seth Stern, director of advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation, told CNN the raid appears to have violated federal law and is &#8220;the latest example of American law enforcement officers treating the press in a manner previously associated with authoritarian regimes.&#8221;
&#8220;Based on the reporting so far, the police raid of the Marion County Record on Friday appears to have violated federal law, the First Amendment, and basic human decency. Everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves,&#8221; Stern said.

Newspaper production at Tamedia Zurich printing plant

First Amendment Concerns Raised After Police Seize Materials From Small-Town Kansas Newspaper Office And Staff Homes During Raid

Who is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/joe-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">President Joe Biden</a> meeting with when he ventures to Delaware on a near-weekly basis?
Doctors? Former <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/barack-obama-unloads-on-buzzkill-democrats-and-cancel-culture" target="_blank" rel="noopener">President Barack Obama</a>? Hunter&#8217;s Chinese <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-joe-biden-granted-west-wing-meeting-to-hunter-associate-while-he-was-vp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">business partners</a>? The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/joe-biden-between-bites-of-ice-cream-brags-the-economy-is-strong-as-hell-ice-cream-prices-are-up-13-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ice cream man</a>?
Nobody knows. The government apparently doesn&#8217;t keep Delaware visitor logs — despite the fact that he has spent more than one-fourth of his presidency there thus far.
According to an <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/17/politics/joe-biden-presidency-delaware-work-from-home" target="_blank" rel="noopener">analysis</a> by CNN, &#8220;Biden has made 55 visits to Delaware, totaling some or all of 174 days as of Sunday.&#8221;  Often, the president&#8217;s schedule shows no public events during those days.
For its part, The New York Post has <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/10/05/biden-delaware-visitors-shrouded-in-mystery-by-secret-service/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">attempted</a> to track down the aforementioned record of who is meeting with the president in The First State. Yet, the Secret Service claims such documentation does not exist.
Most recently, after back and forth under the Freedom of Information Act guidelines, Secret Service Deputy Director Faron Paramore told The Post that “the agency conducted an additional search of relevant program offices for potentially responsive records.”
“This search also produced no responsive records,” Paramore added.
However, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/10/05/biden-delaware-visitors-shrouded-in-mystery-by-secret-service/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told the paper</a> that the idea that the records are not available is &#8220;a bunch of malarkey.&#8221;
“Americans deserve to know who President Biden is meeting with, especially since we know that he routinely met with [first son] Hunter’s business associates during his time as vice president,” Comer added.
We could soon find out. The Kentucky congressman is in line to take over the House Oversight Committee should the GOP win the midterms — which looks increasingly likely.
Biden, of course, came bounding into the White House promising a new age of honesty. Decency was on the ballot, after all. The White House promised to be forthright with the press.
“There will be moments when we disagree, and there will certainly be days where we disagree for extensive parts of the briefing even, perhaps,” former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-biden-briefing/biden-white-house-pledges-data-transparency-respect-for-free-press-idUSKBN29Q08S" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in January 2021. “But we have a common goal, which is sharing accurate information with the American people.&#8221;
Biden is not the only member of his administration keeping elements out of the public eye.
In August, Fox News <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/whats-john-kerry-hiding-memo-shows-bidens-climate-office-is-keeping-elements-we-cant-put-on-paper-out-of-emails" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that, according to emails obtained by a FOIA request, senior officials in the Special Presidential Envoy For Climate (SPEC) avoided putting certain language in writing.
While discussing the budget for the fiscal year 2022 and 2023, one official whose name was redacted told his colleagues on March 9, “I would also suggest a call or meeting soon with jk to update him on FY22 and 23, focusing on all the elements we can’t put on paper.”
Fox News noted that the subject of the email was titled “updated memo for JK on FY23 budget settlement.”
The &#8220;JK&#8221; presumably refers to the man who heads up that office  — failed-presidential candidate and <a href="https://people.com/celebrity/teresa-heinz-kerry-hospitalized/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ketchup hubby</a> John Kerry. Biden has described Kerry as one of his &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-takes-air-force-one-up-the-coast-for-a-quick-speech-about-the-dangers-of-fossil-fuels-climate-change" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dearest friends</a>.&#8221;
In that case, maybe Kerry is meeting with Biden each weekend for a game of bridge. The world may never know.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Joe Biden

Who Is Biden Meeting With? President Has Spent 25% Of Term In Delaware, Visitor Logs Don’t Seem To Exist

Who Is Biden Meeting With? President Has Spent 25% Of Term In Delaware, Visitor Logs Don't Seem To Exist

Barack Obama

Biden Administration

Conservative Media

Delaware

John Kerry

White House

The Biden administration not only supported a secret legal effort to obtain the phone and email records of four New York Times reporters, but its Justice Department imposed a gag order on the Times “to shield it from public view” — a move the newspaper called “unprecedented” in journalistic history.
The revelation comes just weeks after President Joe Biden called such records requests “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/joe-biden-rips-trump-for-doing-the-same-thing-the-obama-administration-did">absolutely, positively wrong</a>,” adding, &#8220;I will not let that happen.”
On January 5, the Trump administration petitioned a court to obtain the reporters&#8217; email information from Google, which provides the Times’ email services. The newly inaugurated Biden administration continued the probe and added a new twist.
“While the Trump administration never informed the Times about the effort, the Biden administration continued waging the fight this year, telling a handful of top Times executives about it but imposing a gag order to shield it from public view, said the lawyer, David McCraw, who called the move unprecedented,” the Times <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/u-waged-secret-legal-battle-142203155.html">reported</a>.
Google refused to turn over the records, the Times reported, “apparently demanding that the Times be told” about the Justice Department’s request, “as its contract with the company requires.”
On March 3, the Biden administration allowed the court to notify McCraw, but the judge <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/new-york-times-justice-department/2021/06/05/0fc66026-c61d-11eb-93f5-ee9558eecf4b_story.html">said</a> that he “may not share the existence or substance of either of these Orders with any other person without further approval from this Court.”
Over the next few weeks, McCraw said he was allowed to inform a handful of people, including the company’s legal team and publisher — but not Executive Editor Dean Baquet or other newsroom leaders, much less the public.
McCraw called the order “stunning,” while Baquet noted the bipartisan nature of the email probe, which began “in the final 15 days of the Trump administration. And the Biden administration continued to pursue it. As I said before, it profoundly undermines press freedom.”
Such requests — launched to find out which administration officials leaked sensitive national security information to the media — amount to about one “case a year,” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/everything-you-missed-from-cable-news-experts-this-weekend">said</a> Washington Post national security reporter Devlin Barrett. But the issuance of a gag order has reportedly never taken place before March.
“It’s completely unprecedented for the Justice Department to seek and obtain a gag order in a leak investigation,” Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., a lawyer who assisted the Times with its negotiations, told The Washington Post. “It adds insult to injury for the government to seek to muzzle the news organization fighting to protect its sources.”
The Times said it went public the moment the order was lifted on Friday. Strategic news decisions about releasing bad news just before the weekend are often derisively called the “Friday news dump.”
Meanwhile, the Biden administration — echoing the Obama administration — released a statement saying it knew nothing about its own DOJ’s activities until the media publicized them.
“No one at the White House was aware of the gag order until Friday night,” <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/06/05/statement-by-press-secretary-jen-psaki-on-the-department-of-justice-leak-investigation-policy/">said</a> White House press secretary Jen Psaki in a statement released on Saturday.
The Biden administration added it would put an end to the practice of asking for the records of bona fide journalists.
“While the White House does not intervene in criminal investigations, the issuing of subpoenas for the records of reporters in leak investigations is not consistent with the [p]resident’s policy direction to the [d]epartment, and the Department of Justice has reconfirmed it will not be used moving forward,” Psaki said.
DOJ spokesman Anthony Coley <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/556996-white-house-says-it-was-unaware-of-ny-times-gag-order?rl=1">added</a> that “going forward,” the Justice Department would make “a change to its longstanding practice” and “not seek compulsory legal process in leak investigations to obtain source information from members of the news media doing their jobs.”
But The Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-business-government-and-politics-67ac2f4f96b2dfd7f47446662e59ec6e">noted</a> that the DOJ’s new order “did not define who exactly would be counted as a member of the media for the purposes of the policy and how broadly the protection would apply.” For instance, would this <a href="https://www.projectveritas.com">apply</a> to <a href="https://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/author/david/">undercover journalists</a> infiltrating abortion facilities, or bloggers?
The Biden administration’s deflection did not satisfy many members of the legacy media, including CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “This statement comes weeks after Biden told me he wouldn&#8217;t allow DOJ to seize reporters&#8217; records and hours after a top lawyer for NYT revealed that DOJ, under Trump &amp; Biden, sought to obtain email logs of reporters to identify their sources and bound executives by a gag order,” she <a href="https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1401196932576522244">tweeted</a>.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
This statement comes weeks after Biden told me he wouldn&#39;t allow DOJ to seize reporters&#39; records and hours after a top lawyer for NYT revealed that DOJ, under Trump &amp; Biden, sought to obtain email logs of reporters to identify their sources and bound executives by a gag order.
&mdash; Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) <a href="https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1401196932576522244?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 5, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
CNN’s Jake Tapper <a href="https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/1401170027055882240">pointed out</a>, “The gag order happened *under Biden* who to @kaitlancollins decried such DOJ searches.” (Emphasis in original.)
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The gag order happened *under Biden* who to <a href="https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kaitlancollins</a> decried such DOJ searches. <a href="https://t.co/6o2tw9NGZp">https://t.co/6o2tw9NGZp</a>
&mdash; Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) <a href="https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/1401170027055882240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 5, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
And the Times’ Washington correspondent, Maggie Haberman, <a href="https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1401012985540317190">reiterated</a>, “Again, this gag was imposed by the Biden DOJ.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
&quot;There was no precedent, Mr. McCraw said, for the government to impose a gag order on New York Times personnel as part of a leak investigation.&quot; Again, this gag was imposed by the Biden DOJ <a href="https://t.co/ZbCB71hraq">https://t.co/ZbCB71hraq</a>
&mdash; Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) <a href="https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1401012985540317190?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 5, 2021</a></blockquote>
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But others sought to put the blame on the previous, Republican administration. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) omitted the Biden administration’s actions completely, <a href="https://twitter.com/SenBlumenthal/status/1401307759400861696">tweeting</a>, “This gag order unconscionably concealing DOJ’s legally dubious probe of reporters under Trump requires full public disclosure.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
This gag order unconscionably concealing DOJ’s legally dubious probe of reporters under Trump requires full public disclosure. DOJ now must come clean. Tell the public why prosecutors perpetuated these secret abuses &amp; forced silence. <a href="https://t.co/aYD9fYslR1">https://t.co/aYD9fYslR1</a>
&mdash; Richard Blumenthal (@SenBlumenthal) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenBlumenthal/status/1401307759400861696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 5, 2021</a></blockquote>
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The Trump administration reportedly sought records from the early months of 2017 from New York Times reporters Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eric Lichtblau, and Michael S. Schmidt. The Obama administration had similarly asked for officials to turn over the records of Apuzzo and Goldman during the course of nine separate investigations into White House leaks, actions that the AP said in 2013 constituted a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into freedom of the press guaranteed by the First Amendment.

New York

Biden Admin Slapped ‘Unprecedented’ Gag Order On Media Execs

New York Times

Surveillance

Plymouth Church is located in the City of Raleigh, which makes up much of Wake County, North Carolina. Plymouth’s pastor, Dr. Chris Partin, is struggling to assert his religious liberties in light of restrictions imposed by North Carolina’s Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, and expanded on by local government. Recently, he came up with a creative idea to allow his congregants to have some semblance of religious freedom during Easter week. But government officials in North Carolina simply will not allow it.
Dr. Partin’s idea was simple. He wanted to do a so-called drive-through church on Easter with church staff remaining, not just six, but ten feet away from congregants at all times. The drive-through service would be little more than short readings of portions of the Easter story. Partin communicated this simple plan to Wake County Officials in the following simple email:
<blockquote>Hi. I understand drive in churches are permitted. We want to do a drive through where we as a staff just say hello from a distance to our members and read in portions the easter story in stations while being 10 ft or more away. People will not get out of their vehicles. Is this ok?
Thank you.
Dr. Chris Partin.</blockquote>
The Wake County Attorney’s Office responded with a prompt rejection of the request. I have included highlights of the rejection letter below:
<blockquote>A determination has been made that drive-in/drive-through church services are PROHIBITED and are NOT ALLOWED pursuant to Section 7 and Section 10(p) of the current Proclamation of Emergency Restrictions signed by the Chairman of the Wake County Board of Commissioners on March 26, 2020 (the &#8220;Proclamation.&#8221;).
Section 7 of the Proclamation states &#8220;All public and private gatherings of any number of people, including non-Wake County residents, occurring outside of a single household or residential unit are prohibited, except for the purposes expressly permitted in Section 1 of this Proclamation.&#8221;  Section 1 of the Proclamation requires that &#8220;each Wake County resident remains in his/her/their household or residential living unit except as required or permitted for Essential Activities,&#8221; and the Proclamation does NOT include church attendance or attendance at faith organizations or institutions within its definition of &#8220;Essential Activities.&#8221;</blockquote>
In other words, the authorities in control in Wake County, North Carolina are engaged in blatant viewpoint discrimination. And there is no need for it given the fact that even North Carolina’s far-left governor sees no need for such stringent overreach. In fact, the N.C. Sheriffs’ Association has already asked Governor Cooper whether drive-in church services would be allowed under the state’s shelter in place order. In response, Cooper, told the sheriffs the following:
<blockquote>I trust law enforcement’s judgment in directing people to abide by local and state health department guidance. These gatherings appear to be acceptable as long as individuals remain in their vehicles and avoid contact.</blockquote>
But herein lies the problem. The governor’s executive order is wrong for two reasons, not just one. First, it is overly restrictive in terms of what it mandates at the state level. Second, and perhaps more disturbing, it gives both counties and cities seemingly unlimited authority to issue even greater restrictions than the ones imposed by the governor. And Wake County officials know that, which is why they told Partin the following:
<blockquote>We are aware that this determination may differ with certain guidance that the Governor&#8217;s Office has issued with respect to interpreting the State&#8217;s Stay-at-Home Order, Executive Order 121, issued by Governor Cooper on March 27, 2020.  However, Wake County&#8217;s current Proclamation of Emergency Restrictions is more restrictive in some respects than the Governor&#8217;s Executive Order 121, including on the issue addressed in the preceding paragraphs, and the Governor&#8217;s Executive Order 121 clearly authorizes counties and cities to issue state of emergency declarations that impose greater restrictions or prohibitions than those imposed under the Governor&#8217;s Executive Order 121, as Wake County has done in its Proclamation.</blockquote>
And there you have it. Unbridled discretion to shut down public worship by a county government that is freed by the governor to impose arbitrary demands on churches – such as that they operate with “minimal staff.” But don’t trust my interpretation. Read for yourself what Wake County Officials had to say: 
<blockquote>Since drive-in/drive-through church services would involve the presence of not just &#8220;minimal staff&#8221; but other individuals as well, they are prohibited under Section 10(p) of the (Wake County) Proclamation.</blockquote>
The Wake County proclamation specifically states that faith organizations and institutions may only be allowed to stay open “for the purpose of providing online distribution.” Violations of the county order could include fines and even jail time.
But what about this constitutes viewpoint discrimination as I have claimed above? It is pretty simple, actually. In addition to the government exempting government, the government also exempts newspapers, television, radio, and media services.  Newspapers are free to distribute as they please. In fact, Wake County goes so far as to say that nothing in their proclamation shall be construed to limit prohibit or restrict media operations in any way whatsoever. They are essential businesses, but the Church is not. Thus the county has dissected the First Amendment in such a way as to choose certain clauses over others. Freedom of Press remains. Free exercise of religion is discarded.
It is a sad irony that the North Carolina County in which our liberties are being buried goes by the name of “wake.”  The only question is whether the liberties that died this Easter will ever be resurrected.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cruz-blasts-arrest-of-pro-lifer-david-benham-paper-calls-him-shameless-cruz-unloads">Cruz Condemns Arrest Of Pro-Lifer David Benham. Paper Calls Him ‘Shameless.’ Cruz Unloads.</a>

Roy Cooper

ADAMS: A Wake For Civil Liberties

COVID

Freedom of Religion

North Carolina

Investigative reporter John Solomon, who has extensively covered stories about the intelligence community in recent years, particularly involving Donald Trump, details in an op-ed for <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/schiff-threatens-press-freedom-11575937690">The Wall Street Journal</a> published Monday how House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) allegedly abused the impeachment process to &#8220;punish&#8221; his critics, including Solomon himself.
The FBI and Justice Department, Solomon explains, have &#8220;created specific rules governing agents’ actions involving special-circumstances professionals, which include high-level approval and review,&#8221; as well as &#8220;special <a href="https://www.rcfp.org/attorney-general-guidelines/?mod=article_inline">rules</a> for subpoenaing journalists.&#8221;
&#8220;If the executive branch, and by extension the courts that enforce these privacy protections, observe the need for such sensitivity, it seems reasonable that Congress should have similar guardrails ensuring that the powers of the state are equally and fairly applied,&#8221; Solomon contends.
However, Schiff&#8217;s use of subpoenas to obtain phone records from private citizens, including himself and Trump&#8217;s personal lawyers, and to then publicize them demonstrate an &#8220;alarming&#8221; abuse of his power as a committee chair and the man heading up the impeachment inquiry:
<blockquote>[Schiff&#8217;s] committee secretly authorized subpoenas to <a href="https://quotes.wsj.com/T">AT&amp;T</a> earlier this year for the phone records of President Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and an associate. He then arbitrarily extracted information about certain private calls and made them public.
Many of the calls Mr. Schiff chose to publicize fell into the special-circumstances categories: a fellow member of Congress ( Rep. Devin Nunes, the Intelligence Committee’s ranking Republican), two lawyers (Mr. Giuliani and fellow Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow ) and a journalist (me).</blockquote>
Even more troubling, writes Solomon, is that some of the people&#8217;s phone records he released were at times critical of Schiff.
Along with having &#8220;trampled the attorney-client privilege of Mr. Trump and his lawyers,&#8221; and &#8220;intruded on my First Amendment rights to interview and contact figures like Mr. Giuliani and the Ukrainian-American businessman Lev Parnas without fear of having the dates, times and length of private conversation disclosed to the public,&#8221; Solomon argued, Schiff has also spread misinformation in an apparent attempt to &#8220;punish people whose work Mr. Schiff found antagonistic&#8221;:
<blockquote>Contrary to Mr. Schiff’s defense that he was simply serving the investigative interest of Congress, the release of the phone records served much more to punish people whose work Mr. Schiff found antagonistic than to fulfill an oversight purpose. And it served Congress poorly because it spread false insinuations. Mr. Schiff’s report suggested, for instance, that Mr. Giuliani called the White House to talk to the Office of Management and Budget, implying he might have been trying to help Mr. Trump withhold aid to Ukraine as Democrats allege. The White House says that claim is wrong; the number was a generic phone entry point and no one in OMB talked to Mr. Giuliani.
Likewise, Mr. Schiff published call records between Mr. Giuliani and me and suggested they involved my Ukraine stories. Many contacts I had with Mr. Giuliani involved interviews on the Mueller report and its aftermath or efforts to invite the president’s lawyer on the Hill’s TV show, which I supervised.</blockquote>
Schiff&#8217;s actions, Solomon warns, &#8220;threaten&#8221; freedom of the press. <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/schiff-threatens-press-freedom-11575937690">Read Solomon&#8217;s full op-ed here</a>.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-democrats-announce-impeachment-articles-trump-responds-dems-refuse-to-acknowledge-key-fact">Democrats Announce Impeachment Articles; Trump Responds: Dems Refuse To Acknowledge Key Fact</a>

Adam Schiff

Reporter: Here’s How Schiff Abused Impeachment Process To ‘Punish’ His Critics, Including Me

Impeachment

Rudy Giuliani

Last week, Israeli prosecutors charged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with three counts of corruption. At the core of the indictment is an accusation that Netanyahu accepted bribes in the form of positive press coverage (or more precisely, reduction in negative coverage). In exchange, Netanyahu allegedly advanced the interests of two powerful Israeli media organizations.
The unprecedented designation by prosecutors of press coverage as a currency for bribery has far-reaching implications on the freedom of the press, and could curtail journalists’ ability to report the truth.
For example, the morning after Netanyahu’s indictment, several prominent journalists and editors called for Netanyahu&#8217;s immediate resignation, thereby creating public pressure for his removal. If Netanyahu resigns, and one of those journalists later receives some sort of benefit from the new government, such as an exclusive interview, then according to last week’s precedent, that journalist could be exposed to charges of bribery.
Another challenge to freedom of the press that arose from last week’s indictment relates to journalists’ complex, multi-layer relations with their sources — a process that certainly includes a lot of give and take. A journalist&#8217;s interaction with sources, including politicians, is now suddenly under scrutiny — criminal scrutiny! With such restrictions, it is possible that many journalists&#8217; headline-grabbing exposures, such as Watergate, would have not been uncovered.
There are those in Israel who dismiss this by arguing that the indictment has nothing to do with freedom of the press, but rather with Netanyahu’s corruption. For decades, alas, Israeli prosecutors and investigators sought to find wrongdoing by Netanyahu and his <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/ag-to-handle-sara-netanyahu-s-bottle-deposit-scandal-1.5366779">family</a>. “This is the best they could come up with,” explained one commentator about the prime minister&#8217;s indictment. Decades of searching for misconduct now resulting in such a bizarre charge could paradoxically be interpreted by some as a testament to Netanyahu’s integrity. Indeed, many around the world were quick to condemn the Israeli prosecutor’s action. For example, Mark Levin <a href="https://twitter.com/marklevinshow/status/1197644963061882882">tweeted</a>: “I’ve carefully reviewed these charges and they’re outrageous. This is an assault on freedom of the press and the investigation was corrupt.”
But there is also another side to the story. Israel is a hub for global innovations: Turning air into water, saving lives through medical breakthroughs, generating cutting-edge ideas that alter long-held beliefs. In this realm, perhaps the revolutionary treatment of press coverage by Israeli prosecutors, who are revered around the legal world for their high professionalism, awakens the issue of the power of the press and brings it for debate in the global public square.
After all, the media shape people’s minds. Why should it not be held accountable? Should journalists and media outlets be investigated about what really motivates their coverage? For example, the BBC, which influences millions of British citizens, has long been perceived to have a positive bias toward the European Union (EU) and to give negative coverage to the Brexit campaign. It was then revealed that the BBC has <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/02/06/bbc-faces-brexit-bias-accusations-4m-eu-funding/">allegedly been the recipient</a> of millions of Euros from the EU. Similar realities exist with other news outlets around the world. Some are open about their bias — and are even proud of it.
Decisions by journalists and editors can make or break the careers of politicians and influence the outcomes of elections. Nowhere is this more paramount than in the case of Netanyahu, who, along with his family, has been a subject of a smear campaign by the Israeli media for over 25 years now. The negative press has been so extreme that even Netanyahu’s arch-rival, Arab Joint List Knesset Member Ahmed Tibi, who was a close associate of PLO leader Yasser Arafat, came to Netanyahu’s defense in 2010. Tibi denounced what he labeled the “inhuman treatment” of Netanyahu’s wife. In an emotional speech from the podium of the Knesset, he stated: ”I will do whatever it takes to unseat you, but will never use attacks on your wife and family to do so.”
With media outlets deploying their enormous power to achieve their objectives, such as to unseat Netanyahu or to reject Brexit, perhaps Israeli prosecutors taking the lid off the sanctity of the freedom of the press should not be brushed off so quickly. Granted, there are other problematic aspects of Netanyahu’s indictment, such as the allegation of selective enforcement (many politicians received positive coverage, but none were indictment). Alan Dershowitz, for example, argued earlier this year that “to bring down a duly elected prime minister on the basis of an expansive and unprecedented application of a broad and expandable criminal statute, endangers democracy.&#8221;
No matter what one thinks about the merits of the indictment, one thing is clear: A historic debate about the freedom of the press has been launched.
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Gol Kalev analyzes trends in Zionism, Europe and global affairs. For more of his articles: <a href="http://europeandjerusalem.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://europeandjerusalem.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574865012618000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE0a1_7ZfpExUVJPpsBaQ_UwuzfLw">europeandjerusalem.com.</a>

Benjamin Netanyahu

KALEV: Netanyahu’s Indictment Could Be A Game-Changer For Freedom Of The Press

Israel

Citing &#8220;extraordinary times,&#8221; powerful actors union SAG-AFTRA issued a resolution Friday meant to condemn President Trump, a member of the union whose name the resolution deliberately leaves out. This is not the first time the union has rebuked its Hollywood-hated member.
While the <a href="https://www.sagaftra.org/sag-aftra-passes-resolution-support-free-and-unencumbered-press-first-day-its-national-convention">resolution</a> passed unanimously by over 400 delegates representing the 160,000-member union on Friday fails to call out Trump by name, it begins by quoting his repeated description of the media as &#8220;the enemy of the people.&#8221;
“We are living in an extraordinary time when the news media has been attacked as spreading false stories and as an enemy of the people,&#8221; the resolution reads.
&#8220;SAG-AFTRA has on at least two occasions since the last national convention, issued strong statements on behalf of a free and unencumbered press,&#8221; it continues. &#8220;SAG-AFTRA believes that the entities that employ journalists must do everything they can to ensure their freedom, protection and safety.&#8221;
&#8220;As a proud labor union representing more than 160,000 broadcasters, actors and entertainers, the union stands with all of its members in ensuring that the basic rights of an unrestricted and independent press continue to be defended,&#8221; it concludes.
The resolution is the third pro-free press, anti-Trump statement passed by the union. The first was issued within the first month of Trump&#8217;s presidency, three days after he slammed the &#8220;fake news media&#8221; as &#8220;the enemy of the people.&#8221;
&#8220;The FAKE NEWS media (failing <a class="PrettyLink profile customisable h-card" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/nytimes" data-mentioned-user-id="807095" data-scribe="element:mention">@nytimes</a>, <a class="PrettyLink profile customisable h-card" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/NBCNews" data-mentioned-user-id="14173315" data-scribe="element:mention">@NBCNews</a>, <a class="PrettyLink profile customisable h-card" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/ABC" data-mentioned-user-id="28785486" data-scribe="element:mention">@ABC</a>, <a class="PrettyLink profile customisable h-card" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/CBS" data-mentioned-user-id="97739866" data-scribe="element:mention">@CBS</a>, <a class="PrettyLink profile customisable h-card" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/CNN" data-mentioned-user-id="759251" data-scribe="element:mention">@CNN</a>) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!&#8221; Trump tweeted.
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The FAKE NEWS media (failing <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@nytimes</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/NBCNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NBCNews</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ABC</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/CBS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CBS</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CNN</a>) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/832708293516632065?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 17, 2017</a></blockquote>
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In response, the powerful union passed a <a href="https://www.sagaftra.org/sag-aftra-statement-rights-free-and-unencumbered-press">resolution</a> on February 20, which, like its shorter more recent resolution on the free press, opted not to name Trump:
<blockquote>As a union whose membership includes broadcast and online journalists, SAG-AFTRA champions the rights of a free press, whose primary role is to provide citizens with the information they need to effectively govern a democracy. These rights are guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which establishes that the press shall be free from government interference in the dissemination of information, ideas and opinions.
SAG-AFTRA, journalists and non-journalists alike, supports a free and unencumbered press and stands with any journalist who might find his or her ability to report on our government challenged or compromised.
SAG-AFTRA believes first and foremost that citizens in a democracy need the truth. Furthermore, SAG-AFTRA believes that journalists have an obligation to monitor and question those in power, pointing out wrongdoing when they find it, noting when facts asserted are not supported by evidence, and reporting inconsistencies in the positions of public figures.
As working professionals, members of the news media have an obligation to verify the accuracy of what they report, with loyalty only to their readers, listeners and viewers and not to any political party, affiliation, or ideology.
As a proud labor union representing more than 160,000 broadcasters, actors and entertainers SAG-AFTRA stands with all of its members in ensuring that the basic rights of a free and independent press continue to be upheld.</blockquote>
SAG-AFTRA issued a similar defense of the free press just eight months later in direct response to Trump asking in a tweet &#8220;at what point is it appropriate to challenge&#8221; the &#8220;fake news&#8221;-producing media&#8217;s &#8220;license.&#8221;
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<div>&#8220;Fake [NBC News] made up a story that I wanted a &#8216;tenfold&#8217; increase in our U.S. nuclear arsenal. Pure fiction, made to demean. NBC = CNN,&#8221; Trump wrote in a pair of tweets on Oct. 11, 2017. &#8220;With all the Fake News coming out of NBC and the networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for the country!&#8221;</div>
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Fake <a href="https://twitter.com/NBCNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NBCNews</a> made up a story that I wanted a &quot;tenfold&quot; increase in our U.S. nuclear arsenal. Pure fiction, made up to demean. NBC = CNN!
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/918110279367643137?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2017</a></blockquote>
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With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/918112884630093825?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2017</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;As a union whose membership includes broadcast and online journalists, SAG-AFTRA champions the rights of a free press, whose primary role is to provide citizens with the information they need to effectively govern a democracy,&#8221; the union said in a statement, as reported by <a href="https://variety.com/2017/tv/news/sag-aftra-unencumbered-press-trump-license-revocation-threat-1202595613/">Variety</a>.
&#8220;These rights are guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which establishes that the press shall be free from government interference in the dissemination of information, ideas and opinions,&#8221; it continued. &#8220;SAG-AFTRA, journalists and non-journalists alike, supports a free and unencumbered press and stands with any journalist who might find his or her ability to report on our government challenged or compromised.&#8221;
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Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-shames-nba-coaches-for-pandering-to-china">WATCH: Trump Shames NBA Coaches For ‘Pandering To China’</a>
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Donald Trump

‘Extraordinary’: Hollywood Actors Union Passes New Resolution Targeting Trump, Won’t Say His Name

Hollywood

A bodyguard for CNN political analyst April Ryan has been summoned to appear by a New Jersey court after he allegedly assaulted a journalist who was filming Ryan at a speaking event.
On August 3, Charlie Kratovil, a reporter with the New Brunswick Today, attended the New Jersey Parent Summit at the Heldrich Hotel. There, Ryan, who is D.C. bureau chief for American Urban Radio Networks, delivered the keynote address. Kratovil was credentialed as a reporter and was videotaping the speech when one of Ryan&#8217;s bodyguards, Joel Morris, allegedly seized his camera and forcibly ejected him from the hotel.
&#8220;When I speak, I don&#8217;t have news covering my speech,&#8221; Ryan told the audience as Kratovil was removed from the audience.
Ryan has angrily complained that officials in the Trump White House have sought to silence her. &#8220;There have been efforts to silence me in the briefing room, there have been efforts to discredit me,&#8221; she said.
Kratovil on Monday posted a photo of him holding up a court document, with the caption: &#8220;CRIMINAL CHARGES FILED: April Ryan&#8217;s &#8216;security guard&#8217; will be arraigned 9/12 in Superior Court on charges of harassment, assault and theft by unlawful taking.&#8221;
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B1Wl7w1ppnL/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CRIMINAL CHARGES FILED: April Ryan&#8217;s &#8220;security guard&#8221; will be arraigned 9/12 in Superior Court on charges of harassment, assault, and theft by unlawful taking.</a>
A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/charlie4change/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Charlie Kratovil</a> (@charlie4change) on Aug 19, 2019 at 9:54am PDT
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And Kratovil posted a video on his Twitter page Monday, saying police have found &#8220;probable cause&#8221; to charge Morris with harassment, assault and theft.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">This was more than just an assault on me.
This was an assault on freedom of the press, and <a href="https://twitter.com/AprilDRyan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AprilDRyan</a> should have immediately condemned the use of violence against a journalist. <a href="https://t.co/botpX50uN2">pic.twitter.com/botpX50uN2</a>
— Charlie Kratovil (@Charlie4Change) <a href="https://twitter.com/Charlie4Change/status/1163520712327540736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2019</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;This was more than just an assault on me,&#8221; Kratovil said. &#8220;This was an assault on freedom of the press, and April Ryan should have immediately condemned the use of violence against a journalist.&#8221;
The incident was caught on surveillance cameras in the hotel and show Morris taking Kratovil&#8217;s camera before he manhandled the reporter and shoved him out the door.
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In another video, Morris is seen approaching Ryan at the podium and the two spoke quietly. She stopped her speech for 30 seconds as Kratovil was ejected.
&#8220;Don&#8217;t touch my camera, please. Put that down. Don&#8217;t you dare. Put that down, sir,&#8221; Kratovil said as he was led out.
On Monday, Kratovil said he was just doing his job.
&#8220;I was there to cover April Ryan&#8217;s speech. Joel Morris stole [my] camera, high-tailed it out of the room. One thing led to another, I ended up being assaulted after retrieving the camera. But now Mr. Morris is going to have to show up on September 12 … in Superior Court.&#8221;
He also blasted Ryan for refusing to address the issue:
<blockquote>&#8220;We are still waiting for [Ryan] to comment on this unfortunate incident … Maybe now that there&#8217;s criminal charges we might hear something from her. I hope sincerely that she does comment and I hope she does condemn this. This is unacceptable,&#8221; Kratovil said. &#8220;Not in our country, we have freedom of the press here.&#8221;</blockquote>

April Ryan

WH Reporter April Ryan’s Bodyguard Charged With Assault For Forcibly Removing Journalist Filming Her

The population of Hong Kong has been out en masse protesting for months. The protestors have seen their rights and liberties slowly chipped away by the Chinese government. This gradual reduction of freedoms has been a decade-long process, but recent legislation was a bridge too far for the people of Hong Kong. The legislative boiling point was an extradition bill that would have allowed Hong Kong residents to be transferred and tried in mainland China courts.
Even though Honk Kong is officially part of China, their history kept the island distinct from the rest of the country, both culturally and legally. Hong Kong was seceded to the British by the previous Chinese dynasty in 1842, and the territory remained a British Colony almost uninterrupted for the next 150 years. The mainly Cantonese native population of the island colony was entitled to the freedoms and liberties guaranteed to all citizens under the British Crown. The citizens enjoyed a much higher income compared to those on the mainland, as it was a major trading port, with the economy running under a laissez-faire capitalist model, while mainland Chinese lived under a system that lacked civil liberties and free markets. China would consolidate and fracture in constant cycles of volatility for the next 100 years. During this time, the Hong Kongese found refuge in the stability of their island, and Hong Kong grew to be culturally and economically independent from the mainland.
According to <a href="https://www.scmp.com/article/48108/thatcher-reveals-dengs-threat-seize-hong-kong-day">The South China Morning Post</a>, in 1982, Deng Xiaoping, the effective dictator of China, told Margaret Thatcher that they would just take the islands by force if Britain did not willingly hand it over. She knew this to be true and was forced to negotiate the handover of Hong Kong. Britain relinquished the territory in 1997, but in the negotiation the U.K. was able to secure the freedoms and liberties that the population had grown to expect. These protections were stipulated in a document known as the &#8220;Sino-British Joint Declaration.&#8221; Rights such as freedom of speech, democracy, and the ability to have a fair and impartial trial were to be preserved for 50 years after the handover, known as the &#8220;One country, two systems&#8221; policy.
The protesters, many of whom used to live under British Dominion, believe these guarantees are being rolled back prematurely. In response they have risen up in protest to stop the regression of their rights. In 2014 the &#8220;Umbrella&#8221; protests occurred in which half a million people rose up against a bill requiring politicians to be approved by the Chinese Communist Party before they were allowed to run for office. The public pressure was so great that it forced the authorities to relent.
The current controversy started from a homicide case in Taiwan. A Hong Kong man was suspected of committing the crime, and the Hong Kong government wanted the accused to be extradited to face trial in Hong Kong. The two entities currently do not have an extradition treaty in place. In response, a bill was proposed in the Hong Kong legislature to allow for an extradition agreement. The controversy arose when it was discovered that the bill&#8217;s provisions would also allow for a suspected criminal to be extradited to mainland China.
The Hong Kong population saw this as a direct threat to their freedoms, as any citizen would be capable of being tried in the mainland. In the People&#8217;s Republic of China, death penalty cases are usually decided in under 20 minutes, and the criminal justice system has a 99.9% conviction rate, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/03/11/china-scored-99-9-percent-conviction-rate-last-year/">The Washington Post</a>.
The demonstrations began March 31. At first, it was mainly students who protested, and then on June 6 there was a Silent Lawyer&#8217;s March — where a fourth of the city&#8217;s legal professionals marched against the bill. Soon, every level of Hong Kong society joined the protests. On June 9, over 1,000,000 people took to the streets in protest of the extradition bill. The demonstrations have continued for months with hundreds of thousands filling the streets regularly.
On July 9, Carrie Lam, the chief executive of Hong Kong, declared the bill &#8220;dead.&#8221; This did not stop the protests as there is no legal meaning behind saying a bill is &#8220;dead&#8221;; declaring the bill &#8220;withdrawn&#8221; is the actual terminology that would &#8220;kill&#8221; the bill. Once a bill is withdrawn, it must be reintroduced from the beginning of procedure, if the bill is to become law. Carrie Lam has refused multiple times to declare the bill officially withdrawn. This has led many protestors to believe her plan is to quietly pass the proposition when public pressure dies down.
Carrie Lam has sided against the protests in favor of the bill and has branded the protestors &#8220;rioters.&#8221; After significant backlash from the public, Lam apologized for the statement.
Progressively, police actions toward protestors have become increasingly violent, some of which has been documented in videos showing police brutality. Footage shows uniformed police bashing protestors heads in with clubs and shooting rubber bullets and tear gas at demonstrators. One of the main demands of the protest is for an independent investigation into police brutality that allegedly occurred. There have even been cases of the infamous &#8220;Hong Kong Tirades&#8221; orchestrating attacks against protestors — with police aware of the events prior to happening and refusing to intervene.
In the past few days, there was a major sit-in protest in Hong Kong&#8217;s main international airport, which halted all flights at the facility. The Chinese government has also been reportedly moving troops to the Hong Kong border.

HONG KONG-CHINA-POLITICS

The Full Story Behind The Hong Kong Protests

China

Free Speech

Great Britain

Protest

I will not be in much of a celebratory mood this coming Independence Day.
Our borders have collapsed. Our educational system is a wreck. And our constitutionally protected freedoms of assembly, speech and the press are under siege in the streets and across the internet. The ability of patriots to warn, expose and combat the threats to our national sovereignty is eroding daily.
Sorry to be a wet blanket, my fellow Americans, but this is no time for a parade.
In Portland, my young journalist friend Andy Ngo was hospitalized over the weekend after a brutal assault at the hands of Antifa thugs who rule the streets and run the city. Ngo has been smeared as a &#8220;provocateur&#8221; and a &#8220;propagandist&#8221; for exposing the bloody violence and anarchy of far-left &#8220;resisters.&#8221; He has been doxxed and physically threatened by anti-Trump, open borders radicals menacing him online. On Saturday afternoon, armed only with his smartphone, hand-held GoPro, bodycam and reporter&#8217;s backpack, Ngo braved a mob of black-masked agitators purportedly marching against &#8220;hate.&#8221;
As they passed the county courthouse and sheriff&#8217;s office, the anarchists taunted Ngo by name and hurled cups with unknown substances at him. One violent attacker dressed like a ninja, donning black gloves with reinforced knuckles, punched Ngo in the eyes. Another black-cloaked punk kicked Ngo in the groin multiple times as others pelted him with liquids, sprays and eggs. During the melee, as police stood by, his electronic equipment was stolen. He sustained brain bleeding and wounds to his head, face and neck.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">First skirmish I’ve seen. Didn’t see how this started, but <a href="https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MrAndyNgo</a> got roughed up. <a href="https://t.co/hDkfQchRhG">pic.twitter.com/hDkfQchRhG</a>
— Jim Ryan (@Jimryan015) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jimryan015/status/1145067852375851008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 29, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Ngo was not alone. Two Oregonians who had come to support conservative speakers at a downtown rally nearby were set upon by black-masked vigilantes. Adam Kelly was hit in the head with fists, nunchucks, a metal Hydro Flask and a crowbar. Two massive gashes on his skull required more than 25 staples. John Blum was also overrun by people in black masks, who aimed bear spray or mace at him when he, Kelly and two others tried to come to the aid of others being assaulted by Antifa. The elderly Blum had carried a baton to defend himself, but was blinded and incapacitated while being hit, punched and dragged across the street with blood pouring down his face.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Adam verified that the pix <a href="https://twitter.com/Rambobiggs?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Rambobiggs</a> posted of his bloddy, gashed head are him at the ER. His CT scan was thankfully clear. Adam ended up with a total of 25 stitches.<a href="https://t.co/klqkruauVH">https://t.co/klqkruauVH</a> /e <a href="https://t.co/t5eqqfIK2M">pic.twitter.com/t5eqqfIK2M</a>
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) <a href="https://twitter.com/michellemalkin/status/1145499021924098048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 1, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Antifa&#8217;s apologists in the liberal press scoffed at the savagery, mocking Ngo as a &#8220;f—-ing snowflake&#8221; and downplaying the gang ambushes harmless &#8220;milkshaking.&#8221; In total, medics treated eight people, including three police officers. &#8220;Three community members received treatment at area hospitals after they were assaulted with weapons. Two officers were pepper sprayed during the incident and were treated. Another officer was punched in the arm by a demonstrator and sustained (a) non-life-threatening injury. Another officer sustained a non-life-threatening head injury from a projectile,&#8221; the city blandly reported.
Democratic Mayor Ted Wheeler, a notorious social justice grandstander, spent Monday railing not against the barbarians who&#8217;ve hijacked the public square in his town, but against Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, who called out Wheeler&#8217;s history of stand-down orders. Portland Police Association president Daryl Turner amplified the critique, pleading with the City to &#8220;remove the handcuffs from our officers and let them stop the violence through strong and swift enforcement action.&#8221; Those handcuffs have endangered Portland&#8217;s citizens in multiple ways. Wheeler has declared Portland a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants, and himself a guardian against all foreign criminals evading deportation. In February, the city withdrew the police force from the Joint Terrorism Task Force&#8217;s partnership between the feds and local law enforcement — turning the Pacific Northwest metropolis into a safe space for jihad.
Will there be a federal investigation? Concerned citizens who can&#8217;t afford to wait have taken matters into their own hands. After just three days, more than 5,700 individuals have contributed a whopping $178,000 to a <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/protect-andy-ngo-fund">GoFundMe campaign</a> I spearheaded to help with Andy Ngo&#8217;s security, medical and work costs. A separate fundraiser for Adam Kelly raised more than $11,000. On another front, internet sleuths are analyzing video to try and identify Antifa assailants — crowdsourcing the job Portland officials have failed to do.
But the social media battlegrounds, like the streets, are rigged against the law-abiding.
One Twitter user, LucetVeritas, who posted video of Portland violence this weekend, disappeared from the site on Monday. I was able to track her down. She told me that her tweet &#8220;had millions of impressions and almost 12,000 retweets. Within 24 hours, Twitter suspended my account offering no explanation. As an avid researcher, I have witnessed bias by employees of Twitter who were tied to Antifa accounts. Jack Dorsey himself has admitted his own conservative employees do not feel safe to express their opinions. Our First Amendment right of freedom of speech is in danger more now than ever before.&#8221;
Just minutes after finishing up my conversation with her, I learned that another researcher and investigator I&#8217;ve admired for years, Ann Corcoran, had her invaluable 12-year-old website, Refugee Resettlement Watch, terminated by WordPress this week. Poof. Gone.
With patriots being silenced all around me, it&#8217;s getting harder to feel patriotic. Who needs fireworks when our rights are going up in flames?
Michelle Malkin&#8217;s email address is writemalkin@gmail.com. To find out more about Michelle Malkin and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

MALKIN: America Takes An Antifa Beating

Andy Ngo

Antifa

With his latest blockbuster, &#8220;Unfreedom of the Press,&#8221; Mark Levin presents a unique indictment of the liberal media today &#8212; something I doubted could be done, given the plethora of material already written on this subject.
It is sweepingly comprehensive, covering the history of the American press from before the nation&#8217;s founding through modern times, yet accessibly succinct &#8212; 226 pages, excluding the acknowledgments and notes.
It is tough on the mainstream media but is anything but a ranting screed. A passionate patriot, Levin says this book&#8217;s purpose &#8220;is to jump-start a long-overdue and hopefully productive dialogue among the American citizenry on how best to deal with the complicated and complex issue of the media&#8217;s collapsing role as a bulwark of liberty, the civil society, and republicanism &#8230;&#8221;
With his formidable background in constitutional law and history, Levin provides a fascinating tour of the American free press, from its indispensable role in the establishment of this republic, to its evolution through various phases that culminate in an ideologically possessed institution that is firmly aligned with one political party and is mostly hostile to America&#8217;s founding principles.
The media&#8217;s alliance with a political party (the Democratic Party) is not the first time we&#8217;ve seen this phenomenon in our history. Levin notes that from the 1780s to the 1860s (the party-press era), most newspapers aligned themselves with a politician, a campaign or a political party. But there were at least two critically important differences.
During the party-press era, &#8220;newspapers lined up fairly evenly behind one party or the other or one candidate or the other,&#8221; so balanced competition alone served as a safeguard against manipulation of the citizenry by a monolithic media. Also, and perhaps more important, newspapers &#8220;transparently proclaimed their partisanship.&#8221;
Today&#8217;s liberal media are wholly in the tank for the Democratic Party, but they steadfastly deny it, which facilitates their ability to deceive and indoctrinate the public. They are not on the party&#8217;s payroll or subsidized by it, as some of yesterday&#8217;s newspapers and journalists were, but today there is no denying &#8220;the revolving door of journalists and/or their family members serving primarily in Democratic administrations, Democratic congressional offices, and Democratic campaigns &#8212; and vice versa.&#8221;
Levin traces the notion of objectivity in reporting to the Progressive Era in the early 1920s when the &#8220;scientific approach to journalism&#8221; spread through newsrooms. Journalists were urged to adopt objectivity by developing a consistent method of testing information so that personal and cultural biases would not undermine the accuracy of their reporting.
Whether there was ever an era when journalists pursued objective truth, by the 1950s, the media began to abandon that goal in favor of &#8220;interpretive reporting&#8221; through their progressive lenses. They don&#8217;t even try to separate fact from opinion anymore; rather, they infuse every aspect of the profession with their liberal biases, including the selection, gathering and reporting of the news. There is no ideological or intellectual diversity in their newsrooms. They&#8217;re all in disgraceful lockstep.
The media are so ensconced in the progressive worldview that it&#8217;s sometimes difficult to tell whether they are intentionally deluding the public or deluding themselves &#8212; as they are convinced that their biased reporting meets their warped standard of objectivity. If you believe that only one political viewpoint is worthy of airing (because all other viewpoints are objectively sinister and dangerous), then you might, in a twisted way, think you are being objective by reporting only one side.
Besides, today&#8217;s self-righteous liberal media elites have graduated from such trifling concerns as pursuing objective standards, while pretending to adhere to them. They have fully embraced the philosophy of progressive intellectual John Dewey, that the Progressive Movement must not squander &#8220;the most important tool of mass communication for advancing its ideological program &#8212; a radical break from America&#8217;s heritage, culture, and founding, particularly the principle of individual freedom and market capitalism.&#8221; In other words, progressives must commandeer the media and enlist their key players and soldiers to harness the incomparable power their positions afford them, engage in full-throated activism and fundamentally transform America.
Today&#8217;s media would make Dewey proud. The purpose of a free press &#8220;is to nurture the mind, communicate ideas, challenge ideologies, share notions, inspire creativity, and advocate and reinforce America&#8217;s founding principles &#8212; that is, to contribute to a vigorous, productive, healthy, and happy individual and to a well-functioning civil society and republic,&#8221; writes Levin. But today&#8217;s newsrooms &#8220;do not promote free speech and press freedom, despite their self-serving and self-righteous claims. Indeed, they serve as societal filters attempting to enforce uniformity of thought and social and political activism centered on the progressive ideology and agenda.&#8221;
Instead of pursuing these lofty goals, the media are doing the exact opposite: functioning as a propaganda tool for the Democratic Party and its ideology, thereby destroying their reason for existence and &#8220;threatening the existence of a free republic.&#8221;
While the media and their Democratic Party colleagues breathlessly warn that President Trump is a threat to the free press, they are just projecting. Trump is simply defending himself and issuing a clarion call to Americans, warning us that the partisan media are the real threat &#8212; both to the institution of a free press and to the republic.
Levin isn&#8217;t calling for government action against the press, but he is calling on us to inform ourselves of the threat they pose to our liberties and exhorting us to &#8220;demand a media worthy of our great republic.&#8221;
Unlike the liberal media elite, I proudly admit my bias in favor of my friend Mark Levin. But trust me: You&#8217;ll learn tons and be greatly enriched by this book.
David Limbaugh is a writer, author and attorney. His latest book is &#8220;Jesus Is Risen: Paul and the Early Church.&#8221; Follow him on Twitter @davidlimbaugh and his website at www.davidlimbaugh.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

LIMBAUGH: Mark Levin’s ‘Unfreedom Of The Press’

Mark Levin

Media Bias

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