Tim Robbins gives an excellent speech to the National Press Corp on the war, civil liberties, and the current media climate. Excerpt:
A chill wind is blowing in this nation. A message is being sent through the White House and its allies in talk radio and Clear Channel and Cooperstown. ‘If you oppose this administration there can and will be ramifications.’ Every day the airwaves are filled with warnings, veiled and unveiled threats, spewed invective and hatred directed at any voice of dissent. And the public, like so many relatives and friends I saw this weekend, sit in mute opposition and in fear.
It takes one person with the courage and a resolute voice. The journalists in this country can battle back at those who would re-write our Constitution in the Patriot Act II (or Patriot, the sequel, as we would call it in Hollywood). We are counting on you to star in that movie. Journalists can insist that they not be used as publicists by this administration.