The following was published by Charles Goyette of Freedom & Prosperity Letter which is published by Money and Markets, a Division of Weiss Research, Inc.,

"Last week in this space I commented about the U.S. falling in the rankings of the world’s most economically free countries. The 2014 Index of Economic Freedom shows the U.S. doesn’t even rank in the top ten any longer.

That by itself is a bitter pill to swallow. And after that news comes an equally repugnant chaser: We’ve also fallen — and fallen hard — on the global rankings of press freedom.

The U.S. has fallen 13 places in the World Press Freedom Index, ranking now at only number 46.

The Index is an annual project of Reporters without Borders, a worldwide non-profit organization with correspondents in 150 countries. Reporters without Borders is a pretty hardy group, willing to go into challenging and authoritarian countries to shine a light on press freedom and to defend reporters in dangerous situations.

Once again this year Finland tops the index for freedom of the press. That’s sad. Shouldn’t the free press be our gold medal? Isn’t that our event? After all, freedom of the press is the lead item in the Bill of Rights. It’s in the First Amendment.

But if Finland gets the gold medal, what about silver or bronze? We at least get on the winners’ podium, right?

Afraid not. Netherlands comes in second and Norway comes in third. As for the U.S., it’s as though we couldn’t get out of the starting gate. The U.S. actually fell thirteen places to find itself ranked at only number 46 for press freedom.

That puts us right between Romania and Haiti.

Defending the press is not always an inviting job. Certainly the U.S. news media has distinguished itself as the state’s lapdog press, not the watchdog press that we would wish. But the definition of the press now has expanded beyond a few corporate giants and a couple of TV networks, to include the internet and bloggers. No longer do a few government cronies have a chokehold on the flow of news and information.

We shouldn’t let economic and press freedom divide us in this country, with the right championing economic freedom and the left press freedom. Not only do they belong together as our common heritage, they actually go together and can support one another.

A report this week tells part of that story. In the economic calamity that is Venezuela, newspapers that are critical of the government are finding themselves without newsprint. Six newspapers have completely closed. 30 others have been forced to reduce their runs and eliminate editions.

Currency controls are being blamed in Venezuela. Newspapers aren’t being allowed access to foreign currency to buy newsprint. While some are being strangled in this way, they report that the government is funding supportive papers.

There is nothing new about tactics like this. In Mexico, the state’s newsprint monopoly was long used to silence critics.

Political liberties depend on a freedom of the press. And economic freedom is essential to a free press.

The U.S. needs to start winning some medals in both categories.

For your Freedom and Prosperity,

Charles Goyette