Some things in particular are quintessentially American. Foods like apple pie, an unnatural fascination with big stuff, and baseball all come to mind immediately, but one thing takes the cake as the most essential to the American experience, and that is a free press.
Newspapers played an integral part in the formation of this nation, and as such the founding fathers made it extremely clear that journalism should be strongly protected. Thomas Jefferson went so far as to say, "The only security of all is in a free press."
On Feb. 1, apparently some in Washington didn't quite feel the same.
That day, Gasland director Joshua Fox was getting footage for another documentary on the controversial subject of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Fox's Oscar-nominated film criticized method of extracting natural gas deposits, which may be dangerous to the environment.
Fox and another filmmaker Matthew Sanchez had been attempting to get permission or credentials to record a congressional hearing on fracking for the two days prior. They had become used to being rejected. Over a year and a half, they had consistently attempted to get credentials for similar hearings to no avail.
So in an attempt to exercise his First Amendment right, Fox simply marched right in when the office of Rep. Andy Harris did not respond to yet another request to film the hearing.
Soon after entering and setting up his camera, the Republican-led committee had Fox arrested.
Rep. Brad Miller, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, asked for the hearing to be delayed for a week in order to sort out the credential problem, which was quickly overridden by the committee chair. Miller's request to have Fox and his cameras returned also failed.
What's disturbing about this isn't just the fact that he was arrested. The fact that the committee is hiding itself from public scrutiny makes us wonder: what does the committee have to hide?
The Republican-controlled committee said that their rules clearly state, "Personnel providing coverage by the television and radio media shall be currently accredited to the Radio and Television Correspondents' Galleries." Since Fox wasn't accredited, he couldn't be there.
So when Fox wants to be accredited, he is given the runaround, and when he goes in anyway, he gets arrested for not being accredited. Quite the catch-22 the committee's built.
There was no reason to deny Fox the accreditation to film the meeting. He is a well-known, Oscar-nominated filmmaker who is obviously serious about his work and his documentaries.
Denying him access not only makes the lawmakers look like complete idiots, it shows that they're more concerned about protecting their corporate interests than allowing the public to view our so-called "public" government in action.
Constitutional rights aren't something you can just eliminate through unreasonable levels of bureaucracy.
Sure, it's completely reasonable to make sure that the people filming aren't there to cause a scene or be disruptive, but just because you don't agree with the angle the journalist is taking that doesn't mean you get to build a brick wall between them and public hearings.
