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It's a weird world to live in for a journalist right now. We're bashed daily for just doing our jobs and our president doesn't value us, blasting us for "fake news" and spreading lies about us...on Twitter...
Some of the phrases that come out of the president's mouth (and keyboard) are absurd, but what I'm about to share with you really takes the cake. A friend passed this article along, and I read it with interest. And a little bit of fury.
The headline reads: As Trump slams media, an Indiana lawmaker has drafted a bill to license journalists
According to the IndyStar, an Indiana lawmaker has drafted a bill that would require professional journalists to be licensed.
Under his proposal, professional journalists would have to submit an application to the Indiana State Police. Journalists would be fingerprinted as part of the process and have to pay a $75 fee for a lifetime license. Journalists with felony or domestic battery convictions would be prohibited from getting a license.
"If you're OK licensing my Second Amendment right, what's wrong with licensing your First Amendment right?" Representative Jim Lucas said.
He continued, "If I was as irresponsible with my handgun as the media has been with their keyboard, I'd probably be in jail."
Yes, Rep. Lucas - because gun rights and journalism are the same thing.
There are so many issues with this illogical thinking, the first one being that journalists have an important job of informing people and holding the government accountable. By requiring professional journalists to have a license, the government is ultimately deciding who gets to and who doesn't get to practice journalism. That's a scary thought!
I like to think that politicians are just every day people like you and I, and I keep that in mind when I meet and interview them. But something seems spiteful and personal about Rep. Lucas's bill, especially after reading this quote:
"[Filing the bill] depends on you guys," he told IndyStar in June. "It depends on how egregious and irresponsible you are between now and then."
Seriously?! Has it ever occurred to you, Rep. Lucas, that your bill is egregious and irresponsible?
It is not right for a politician to try to tell me whether I'm worthy of being a journalist or not. It is not right to fingerprint me and put me on some journalism registry. And it is not right to threaten me and our country's network of hard-working journalists with an unconstitutional and ridiculous proposal such as this one.