US sees huge decline in press freedom: Dan Dicks

Press TV has conducted an interview with Dan Dicks, Press for Truth, from Seattle, about press freedom in the United States.

What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: How do you assess press freedom in the United States?

Dicks: We’re clearly seeing a huge decline in the freedom of the press in the United States, and this new report is just a testament to that fact. It shows and proves that there is an attack on the freedom of information and the freedom of the press in the United States.

When somebody like Edward Snowden can reveal some of the things that are happening in the US government, and he is being considered as the enemy or a criminal, that just goes to show you just how far-gone things are getting and how bad it actually is.

We know that there’s a huge attack on the internet in the last few years and certainly they’re trying to clamp down on the freedom of the press in the United States.

The incredible thing about it is that the United States was founded on the principles of having freedom of the press in the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, and so the US should really be leading in this. Technically, the United States should be Number One in this effort.

But because of the information that independent journalists are beginning to reveal to the world, the United States is certainly cracking down on the freedom of the press and we’re starting to see the proof of that.

Press TV: Going forward then, should we expect the American public maybe to realize all of what you have said, essentially about the erosion of the freedom of the press in their country?

Dicks: You know, I think the American people are more and more beginning to realize that they are not getting the truth from the mainstream media. More and more people can sense there’s something wrong. More and more people are realizing that they are being lied to – and they are – beginning to look to alternative sources for information.

And where are they going? They’re going to the internet. They are finding all these alternative sources of information. I do think there is hope.

I think we may be at some fork in the road, if you will, a cross roads where things could really take off and the American people could wake up to the fact that they are being lied to and they need to go to alternative sources for information.

I do think there is hope that the American people can still wake up to the fact that they’re being lied to on a daily basis in the mainstream and need to continue to support programs like this and other news stations that are willing to get the truthful information out there at any cost.