“The very reason for the First Amendment is to make the people of this country free to think, speak, write and worship as they wish, not as the Government commands.” Justice Hugo Black wrote that and he knew what was up. I found it digging deeper for another quote that was used the movie “The Post.”
The movie resonated with me not because it is a great film, but of a message that seems be losing sight these days. Nixon seemed to want to control the story. And now so many years later, people seem to seek out information to suit the narrative they want as opposed to seeking information to form an opinion. Here’s what I believe and if it can’t be confirmed, it must be fake news.
““In the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors.” The justice knew what’s up.
The current thin skinned administration seems to not want to acknowledge that, spending an inordinate amount of time whining about press coverage instead of governing. The obsession about about when something is going to get printed or broadcast seems to permeate social media feeds. If dear leader or the press mouth piece are so concerned about how this outlet or that outlet was going to report on something, perhaps another career choice would have been better for those fragile egos.
I read a few posters complaining of the democrats being disrespectful to the president during the state of the union. These folks forgot that the republicans did a lot of sitting on their hands during the previous adminstration. The national debate should consist of more than “well, what about (fill in no longer relevant villian here).”
There isn’t a perfect outlet. Retractions are taught in journalism school. You mess up, you fix it. It’s not only a journalistic principle, it’s a good human one too. Blind faith in anything is pretty dangerous. When the President talks of fake news, I take that as things he’d just assume not hear. That sort of goes with the territory. You’re in the most public of jobs, chances are people aren’t going to agree with you…on pretty much everything. There will always be dissent and there isn’t anything wrong with that. But he seems to have awoken, or given a louder voice to folks who want to have their version by the version of events. There are cases where they might not be incorrect, but to just scream “It ain’t so” because of who said it seems wrong. Still we have folks who will maintain that because “____ said this, so it has got to be wrong/right/bullshit.”
First amendment is just as important as the second maybe more so. People are smelling conspiracies in things they haven’t read and are seemingly can’t be bothered to look for. Everybody has a relative in their family line that you are just a little closer to, a deeper connection and for me that was my grandfather on my dad’s side. He was a newspaperman, managing editor of a daily and we would trade letters. I remember him giving me gentle criticism to refine my writing style…when I was in forth grade and wrote an article on a field trip for my grade school news letter. He was the first guy I know who actively spoke of reading multiple papers, explaining the value of multiple points of view. My folks espouse this to this day, but Grandpa Murray, too, knew what’s up.
I fully get that breaking news has been coming at a dizzying clip, the past year has been like dog years in terms of news cycles. All the keyboard ninjas are out espousing opinions from their preferred sights. I think given the level of information and disinformation that is out there, it would be good to go back to collecting info and forming your belief from that collection as opposed the other way around.
That never worked out well.
(Photo: Author)
