If 2,000 Tea Party activists descended on Wall Street, you would probably have an equal number of reporters there covering them.

But for the media to name their coverage of the 2003 invasion of Iraq the same as what the Pentagon calls it — everyday seeing 'Operation Iraqi Freedom' — you have to ask: 'If this were state controlled media, how would it be any different?'

The media is absolutely essential to the functioning of a democracy. It's not our job to cozy up to power. We're supposed to be the check and balance on government.

Over the first two weeks of the Donald Trump administration, Steve Bannon has emerged as one of the most powerful figures in the White House. The New York Times ran an editorial posing the question, "President Bannon?" wrote, quote, "We've never witnessed a political aide move as brazenly to consolidate power as Stephen Bannon - nor have we seen one do quite so much damage so quickly to his putative boss's popular standing or pretenses of competence."

Going to where the silence is. That is the responsibility of a journalist: giving a voice to those who have been forgotten, forsaken, and beaten down by the powerful.

Independent media can go to where the silence is and break the sound barrier, doing what the corporate networks refuse to do.

[Chelsea] Manning leaked more than 700,000 classified files and videos to WikiLeaks about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and U.S. foreign policy.