Readings, Rated
“Hey, 1st Amendment, Drop Dead”
I was enjoying this article’s headline so much that I decided to share. First the Independent Press Association goes under, now this? An excerpt: “…Because the Post Office is a monopoly, and because magazines must use it, the postal rates always have been skewed to make it cheaper for smaller publications to get launched and to survive. The whole idea has been to use the postal rates to keep publishing as competitive and wide open as possible. This bedrock principle was put in place by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. They considered it mandatory to create the press system, the Fourth Estate necessary for self-government.
It was postal policy that converted the free press clause in the First Amendment from an abstract principle into a living breathing reality for Americans. And it has served that role throughout our history.
Under the Post Office plan, smaller periodicals will be hit with a much larger increase than the big magazines, as much as 30 percent. What the Post Office is now proposing goes directly against 215 years of postal policy….For full article,click here.
It’s just like so many systems in America — the poorest populations face the greatest fines/fees, and those who can afford to pay them aren’t obliged to. A damn shame.