You know…I never really thought I'd ever say these words, but…well…here you go.
Ted Koppel is THE MAN!!
From Lisa Rein's Radar, an entry about the PATRIOT Act piece from Nightline on Sept 4th. Probably the most insightful piece that I've seen a major media outlet do on PATRIOT. Lisa also vid-captured it, and posted it on her space as a Quicktime file…I'm mirroring her capture of the entire piece until I'm told to take it down. (warning, BIG quicktime…~50 megs).
Here's the transcript of his closing remarks…take it away, Ted:
“The men who drafted our constitution, who framed our civil rights and protected our various freedoms under the law would, I suspect, retch at some of the bone headed, self-serving, misinterpretations of their intentions that they so often use these days to undermine the very freedoms they pretend to safeguard. The miracle of American Law is not that it protects popular speech, or the privacy of the powerful, or the homes of the privileged, but rather, that the least among us, those with the fewest defenses thoses suspected of the worst crimes — the most despised in our midst, are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
That remains as revolutionary a concept now as it was in the 1780s. It makes protecting the country against terrorism excruciatingly difficult, but we cannot arbitrarily suspend the rights of one catagory of suspects without endangering all the others.”
*applause*
