January 1776 Thomas Paine first declared these words as he provided inspiration for a Revolution. The Revolution.

“The time has found us.”

The words leapt off the page to me as I read Common Sense for the umpteenth time, but it seems like I had skipped past that part in previous readings. I can’t recall that phrase meaning so much to me before.

Paine was one of America’s first, and best journalists. Who out there in the media today could fill his shoes in time of great need?

Paine used this phrase in the context that there was no better time than the present to fight the Revolution. The size of the colonies, the resources of the land, the mood of the people and the feeling that a Power greater than them all was dictating their actions led Paine to conclude that this was not a battle to be left to generations yet to be born, that it was a battle to be fought in the present. So it was. An under nourished, outnumbered, ill equipped army of Colonialists took the words of Paine to heart and we can all be grateful today that they did.

Without reservation, I repeat the words of Thomas Paine today, “the time has found us.”

I would encourage you to read Common Sense and put it in the context of this day and you will find parallels a-plenty. While nobody thinks Paine saw our day (he had enough going on at the moment to occupy his time) there is almost a sense of prophecy as you read his words.

While traveling this great nation for nearly three weeks leading up to the 2010 elections I went coast-to-coast, 35 cities, to document and report from Tea Party rallies. I found an attitude and devotion towards the principles of our founding that was absolutely inspirational. Like in Paine’s day, these are Americans who want only to choose for themselves their futures, instead of having a monarchy dictate it for them. After reading Paine again, I believe he would have found this current administration, and perhaps even previous administrations, as ones that were not dissimilar to what he found in his day in Great Britain.

Today we have a government that looks towards what they say is the common good of the people, when their actions only serve a few elitists while trashing the rights of the individual. Or, put another way, the perceived good of the masses outweighs the Liberty of each of us. Of course, the monarchy and elitists always ignore the fact that the lessons of history tell us that when governments of any nation larger than what you will find in the suburbs of LA tries to control its people that way—disaster is the eventual outcome. It never turns out good. Paine understood this perfectly and his words leap off the pages at us today.

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*** Corrected

By now, readers of Big Journalism are more than familiar with the liberal media’s exercise in conspiracy, collusion, and confusion that was the JournoList.

For most on the political right, the leaked emails being exposed by Tucker Carlson and his DailyCaller website serve as proof that the Mainstream Media has jumped the shark, compromising its traditional credibility and betraying a deep, passionate left-wing bias beneath what was supposed to be objective journalism.

Matthew Yglesias, JournoList tough guy

But while all of that is certainly true, I believe it is based on a flawed premise. Specifically, that the Mainstream Media has ever been – or even should have ever been – credible and objective.

The historic reality is that media in America has always been a tool of partisans. During the years proceeding the American Revolution, the revolutionary founders used the pages of the emergent colonial newspapers to rally support for their petitions against the crown. In fact, newspapers were perhaps the most powerful tools in moving public opinion in favor of independence, both through publication of stories hostile to British intentions, or editorial tracts promoting revolution. (more…)

According to a New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Judge, Bloggers are not considered journalists in the eyes of American jurisprudence.  In his decision, Judge Anthony J. Parrillo wrote:

There is, of necessity, a distinction between, on the one hand, personal diaries, opinions, impressions and expressive writing and, on the other hand, news reporting.

By this definition, Thomas Paine, Father of the American Revolution, was not practicing journalism when he printed Common Sense.

Thomas Paine, often held up as America’s first journalist, was really just a blogger using parchment and a printing press instead of a laptop and broadband connection.

Read Common Sense, the tract that is credited with inspiring the American Revolution: (more…)

Pollster Frank Luntz is trying to hawk his new poll on gun laws commissioned by the left-wing group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns. He’s trying to sell the concept that NRA members are just as interested in “common-sense gun policies” as anti-gun nuts and that legislators should take this into account when crafting future anti-gun legislation. The problem is that this poll (.pdf at link) is misleading in some important ways, and the fact that the devil is in the details is totally glossed over.

In an op ed in the Los Angeles Times written by Luntz and Tom Barrett, gun owners are compared favorably with non-gun owners over their feelings on gun banning laws. “The culture war over the right to bear arms isn’t much of a war after all,” the pair tells us. “As it turns out, there is a lot everyone agrees on.”

And this main point serves as the biggest problem with Luntz’s poll. Of course everyone will claim he’s for “common-sense” firearms laws. But the first thing that anyone will find out when discussing concrete policies is that disagreement quickly reigns when people start getting specific. An assumption that everyone “agrees” on just what common sense means disappears pretty quickly when the details are laid out. (more…)