All across the country, Republican legislators are passing laws that make it a crime to videotape the abuse of farm animals. Now, in North Carolina, Republicans are trying to pass a law that will make it a crime to disclose the chemicals in fracking fluids.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101698191
The philosophical underpinnings of these laws are clear: The Republican Party believes businesses have a right to engage in outrageous and even harmful behavior, to keep that behavior secret, and they want to punish whistleblowers with prison sentences.
There’s nothing new about this. The GOP has a long history of hostility toward dissent and activism. They called antiwar demonstrators “unpatriotic” and people who revealed atrocities committed by American troops “traitors.” In Florida, they threatened voter registration volunteers with felony convictions and prison sentences for minor paperwork mistakes. By criminalizing disclosure of animal abuse across a broad swath of farm states, they’re specifically targeting animal rights groups that object to abusive treatment of livestock by factory farms. The North Carolina fracking law is designed to stifle citizen complaints about improper drilling practices that can poison drinking water supplies and damage property.
We’re not talking here about protecting legitimate businesses from harassment. There’s no reason why farmers can’t raise livestock without abusing the animals, and fracking can be done without harming surface aquifers if wells are properly lined. These misguided laws only protect rogue farmers and drillers. In the long run, they harm legitimate businesses by turning consumers against all meat producers and all energy drilling.