Alien and Sedition Redux?

This is an under reported story, but is reflective of much of the   anti-media rhetoric coming from the Far Right. 

Amy Goodman Turns Herself In To Cops After Reporting ILLEGAL Dog Attacks On DAPL Protesters — Vows To Fight “Clear Violation” of Press Freedom

http://countercurrentnews.com/2016/10/amy-goodman-turns-cops-reporting-illegal-dog-attacks-dapl-protesters-vows-fight-clear-violation-press-freedom/

       Want yet one more reason to vote for an anti-Trump? Consider Trump's numerous tirades against a free press, then consider his anti-First Amendment rants of recent days. There has been nothing even approaching this level of anti-truth propaganda in America since John Adams signed the Alien and Sedition Acts into law . (I don't have time, look them up yourself) in 1778.  Even those, which  were aimed at suppressing anti-government speech and activities, were allowed by Jefferson to expire, never to be considered again. The actions of the State of North Dakota against this reporter for simply reporting State and Local law enforcement's brutality against protesters are clearly in violation of the First Amendment, which, for you political naifs, extends to the states, courtesy of the Fourteenth Amendment.

        We may not like the truth, in fact, as Jack Nicholson once famously said, in the words of Aaron Sorkin and William Goldman, sometimes we "Can't handle the truth." This really means sometimes we find the truth..... "inconvenient?"  Having lived through the Joseph McCarthy era and being a relatively sentient person, I remember how many persons were damaged by the efforts of this one man to censure free speech and smear by innuendo while disallowing free exchange of ideas in the marketplace of public opinion.

         What is salient in this particular instance  is that North Dakota, a Republican stronghold, has historically cared little for its Native population's rights.  In this case, while the proposed oil pipeline does not specifically cross ceded Lakota  lands, it does cross traditional burial sites, which have been declared by the state to be of no concern with a bit of hand waving and no real investigation. As much of a concern for the Lakota is that a spill near the Missouri River crossing could irreparably damage the river and its effluents into the Mississippi and on to the Gulf.

Their protests at the pipeline site have been met with attack dogs, tear gas and violence. As the article details, so have attempts to report these civil rights violations by the state.

        What has received little or no attention in all this is that it isn't only the Lakota who have issues with this pipeline. Farmers in Iowa have taken their own state government to court to prevent this pipeline's crossing of their lands, as well. They cite abusive and arbitrary non-compliance with the state's own rules of public domain, as their lands were condemned (or assigned to the pipeline builders) without due process.  Of course these farmers have the means to pursue legal remedies unavailable monetarily to the Lakota. The North Dakota state government's actions are a mirror of every treaty ever signed between the US government and Native tribes in that, in some way or another, every single agreement has been broken by the United States government.

        Agree or disagree, a reporter has every bit as much right to report on the demonstrations as the demonstrators do to protest. It is fundamental to a free society that we have a free press. We already know that Mr. Trump disagrees with that. The only media he cares for are those outlets which report favorably on his actions. This is typical behavior for a narcissistic sociopath. It seems to have spread northward.