The Watchdog Rule

The idea to check on government power (aka The Watchdog Rule), is one of eight values of free expression. This idea basically says that freedom of the press enables citizens to learn about abuses of power and then do something about the abuse at the ballot box if they feel so moved. Every citizen, including the press, is part of the check-and-balance system so that we can restrain government power and abuse of power if need be. There are multiple examples of the use of the Watchdog Rule throughout the past 50 years in American history. One of these examples is Irangate, better known as the Iran-Contra affair.

The Iran-Contra affair or "Irangate", was a secret arms deal where the U.S. government traded weapons like missiles and guns to Lebanese terrorists. These terrorists held American hostages and the U.S. would sell them arms to free them. However, these funds used for the secret deal would also be used to support an anti-Communist rebel group in Nicaragua, known as the Contra's.

In 1980, President Ronald Reagan won the White House and promised his supporters during his campaign that he would assist any and all anti-Communist insurgencies around the world, which was known as the Reagan Doctrine. Unfortunately for President Reagan, the Republican Party lost the majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives during the mid-term elections in 1982. When the Democrats took over Congress, they would pass the Boland Amendment, which restricted the CIA and Department of Defense to involve itself in foreign conflicts. The Boland Amendment actually specifically targeted the conflict in Nicaragua during that time, as the Sandanista government was fighting the Contras, an anti-Communist rebel group that earned the majority of their funds through the drug trade. Despite this new law, President Reagan ordered his National Security Advisor, Robert MacFarlane, to discover a way to help the Contras regardless of the consequences.

Around the time President Reagan started secretly assisting the Contras, Reagan was also dealing with a dire situation in the Middle East. Sometime during 1985, Iran-backed terrorists in Lebanon had taken several American hostages and President Reagan would respond by negotiating with Iran. Robert MacFarlane told Reagan that Iran was interested in buying weapons from the US to help them fight against Iraq, even though there was currently a U.S. trade embargo on Iran. Despite that, President Reagan would agree to an arms deal and take some of the funds earned from it to arm the Contras in the process as well.

The public would not learn of this arms deal until 1986, where a Lebanese newspaper called, Al-Shiraa, reported about the secret arms deal between the U.S. and Iran. The press in America would report about this scandal for the rest of Ronald Reagan's presidency. In the end, around 14 people, including MacFarlane, were charged and served time in prison. Despite being one of the biggest political scandals in the 20th century, this scandal is often overlooked and unlike the other scandals, Ronald Reagan would be forgiven by most of the public.

This is just one of the few examples of the Watchdog Rule being used by the American press to enlighten citizens and hopefully prevent any further abuse of power from the branches of government. Citizens have a role in the checks-and-balances system, and it is to ensure that our government doesn't cross the line.

Source: https://www.history.com/topics/1980s/iran-contra-affair

The Interesting History of the Internet

The Internet that we know today contains hundreds of thousands of websites and endless information on basically anything. Today, the Internet has social media sites, informational sites, news sites, video game sites, shopping sites, and plenty more. However, the Internet wasn't like this when it was first created. Many people believe the Internet didn't exist until it was given to the public in the 90s and then the World Wide Web was soon introduced around '95. In reality, the Internet was actually created in the 1960s and it had a different purpose.

During the 1960s, tensions between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. were at the highest it's been during the Cold War. Events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Space Race are well-known events that happened during the 60s. In the early 1960s, MIT's J.C.R. Licklider, an American psychologist & computer scientist, proposed an idea of a "Galactic Network" of computers. He believed that this idea could act as an alternative way of communication between government leaders if the Soviets decided to destroy the telephone system. By the late 60s, the first workable prototype of the Internet would be invented with the creation of ARPAnet (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), which were both funded by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Picture of ARPAnet in the 1970s

In 1969, ARPAnet, the government's computer network, would send the first message from a computer at UCLA to another computer located at Stanford. At the time, computers were so big that they would take up as much space as a small house would. The first message became a spectacular failure. The message sent was the word, "LOGIN", but ARPAnet's servers crashed and the Stanford computer would only receive the first two letters of the word.

In 1983, ARPAnet would then adopt TCP/IP or the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, which was invented by a computer scientist, Vinton Cerf. This invention would help form the "network of networks", which would become an integral part of the Internet. The TCP/IP was best described as a "virtual handshake" that would help introduce one computer to the other.

The Internet would only be used for government communications until 1990, where a computer scientist and engineer named Tim-Berners Lee would use the Internet as the foundation of the World Wide Web. This is what we know as the Internet today. By 1992, the Internet would then be open to the public and used for commercial purposes. This decision would change the lives of millions of people for almost the next three decades.

Today, 4.3 billion people around the world use the Internet on almost a daily basis. It is crazy to think about how this type of technology has forever changed the lives of billions of people in just fifty years. It's amazing to see how the Internet once was seen as an obscure research idea to a revolutionary technology that is imperative to have within the digital world of the 21st century.

Sources:
https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/invention-of-the-internet
https://www.history.com/news/who-invented-the-internet

Communication in the 21st Century

Communication has evolved greatly in the past 20 years. Back in 1999, cell phones were only used to call one another and the public Internet was still in its early stages. Thanks to better technology and innovation, smartphones have become an integral part of our daily lives as well as the Internet. These types of technology have been able to keep us connected to billions of people all over the world. The smartphone especially has allowed us to do hundreds of other things rather than just calling somebody. Smartphones allow you to text messages to people, use the Internet, order food, play games, and so much more! However, in the past few years, people, particularly young people, are spending much more of their day on their phones rather than interacting with people face-to-face or spending time with others. Ever since the first smartphone was released, more and more people would rather text than call people. We are so easily connected to everybody that it's easier to call them or text them rather than visit them in person. In a way, we are both connected and disconnected at the same time. In these times, we as the generation who grew up with this technology must learn how to balance our tech usage in our daily lives. I don't believe that people shouldn't stop using smartphones, but I believe that it's necessary for us to know when we've spent too much time on them. Overall, we as a society need to find a balance between socializing and spending time on our phones so that we don't go towards a path of always being digitally connected but socially disconnected as well.

https://youtu.be/5DU1B_XkyIk