Republicans Make Reporting the Truth a Crime

ALEC is at it again. The American Legislative Exchange Council, a front for Big Oil, factory farms, prison corporations and their Republican shills, is ramming through another set of laws in state legislatures that will make reporting the truth a crime.

This time they're criminalizing the documentation of animal cruelty on video. Even when that cruelty is quite frequently a crime in and of itself. ALEC and Republicans in state legislatures are trying to -- and in some states already have -- make it illegal to record crimes such as the following:

Video shot in 2011 showed workers dripping caustic chemicals onto the horses’ ankles and clasping metal chains onto the injured tissue. This illegal and excruciating technique, known as “soring,” forces the horse to thrust its front legs forward after every painful step to exaggerate the distinctive high-stepping gait favored by breeders. The video also showed a worker hitting a horse in the head with a large piece of wood.

The Humane Society turned the video over to federal prosecutors and the perpetrators of this crime plead guilty within a week.

These laws would also make it a crime for legitimate employees to record crimes they observe, criminalizing whistleblowing. Finally, ALEC is trying to brand groups who investigate animal cruelty -- like the Humane Society -- as terrorists:

One of the group’s model bills, “The Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act,” prohibits filming or taking pictures on livestock farms to “defame the facility or its owner.” Violators would be placed on a “terrorist registry.”

Factory farms are afraid that they'll lose business when these videos go public, as one of McDonald's egg suppliers did when a video showed chickens living in cages surrounded by the carcasses of dead birds.

Are some of the videos selectively edited and inflammatory? Certainly. But unlike the videos made by Republican operative James O'Keefe, who destroyed ACORN by falsely portraying ACORN helping a pimp evade taxes, factory farms really do these things. It's true that many of the practices that look terrible are actually the best practices and are completely legal.

But, as one ag lobbyist pointed out, surgery on humans is particularly gruesome. Why then isn't ALEC passing laws that make it illegal to film open-heart or plastic surgery? Patients might forgo necessary treatment when they see a man's chest cracked open for heart surgery, and plastic surgeons  might lose business when people see a woman's face literally stretched and pulled up over her forehead! And nothing is more disgusting than watching a doctor casually vacuum out some fat dude's gut with liposuction.

As I've written here before, factory farms can be a force for good if they clean up their act. Animals raised for food are not pets, and farm animals cannot receive the love and attention we lavish upon our cats and dogs. But if factory farms catch heat because they burn the beaks off chicks, so be it. Some people might be disgusted and swear off eating meat forever. But 99 out of 100 will go to McDonalds the next day and buy some Chicken McNuggets.

These laws are unconstitutional because they blatantly violate freedom of speech and freedom of the press. They make it illegal for undercover reporters to do their jobs and employees to document crimes committed by their employers.

For years Republicans like O'Keefe have been promulgating lies nonstop, but now they're passing laws to make it illegal for people to report the truth. They're calling people who are trying to stop violence terrorists. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised: it's been 1984 for almost thirty years now...