Freedom Of The Press

How far does one legitimately take freedom of the press?

Here is America we tend to believe that we live in the most open and free society on the planet. But many times this is not true. We “self censor” enough stuff that honestly we get a rather one-sided viewpoint on lots of issues.

There is a tendency to view Poland as ex-Soviet bloc. So it must be really closed, and sort of dumb. Partially true, but the press there is not afraid to come right out and say what they think.

The prime minister of Germany currently is Angela Merkel, herself originally raised and educated in East Germany. She is involved in a rather open feud with England and Poland over how intrusive the European Union will be. Both the Brits and the Poles want more freedom and national sovereignty , and Germany (Merkel) wants more power and control for the big countries like Germany and France.

A newspaper in Poland has raised some eyebrows in Germany. They used a 21 year old model and Photoshop software to create a funny image of Angela Merkel breast feeding the Polish president and the prime minister.

Can you imagine the waves that would ensue if some nationwide publication in America published a tongue-in-cheek Photoshop picture of President Bush giving oral sex to Vice President Cheney?