Thursday, August 16, 2018

Free press forever!


More than 250 newspapers across the United States today in solidarity protesting Donald Trump's calling the press the "enemy of the people."

I have never believed the press was the "enemy of the people." 

Heck, to some degree, I was a member of the press for 21 years as a Navy journalist, so I do have a connection.

The media, be it print or radio/television broadcast, have a mission: To keep us informed.

The Donald has made it his lot in life to call the press "the enemy." Let's face it, Trump has created and drawn the lines with anyone who disagrees with him. He designates them as dummies, the enemy of the people, or worse.

If the Donald feels he is under siege from the press, you really have to ask yourself why? He goads the press, he taunts them, he insults reporters, he whines he is being treated unfairly, he calls them childish names. And for the most part, the press has turned the other cheek. Trump acts like a petulant, little-spoiled brat. Not the stuff of great presidents, to be sure.

He has insulted our allies and cozied up to our enemies, and when the press does its job by reporting this, this does not make them the enemy, this does not make the reports "fake news," but the conveyance of our current sad state of affairs.

Ask yourselves why Donald barred the press from being present when he met with Vladimir Putin. Ask yourself why he forbade the press from being present during his meetings with the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

What Donald wants is for the press to turn a blind eye; to gush all over him like he is the best thing since spring. In other words, he wants the press to kiss his ass, and most legitimate news sources are having none of that.

The free press is one of the bedrocks of our society. The free press is constitutionally guaranteed and it exists to keep us in the know. I am not so naive as to fail to recognize some members of the press have an agenda (Fox News, anyone?). If you worry about that, then don't rely on one news source. Read multiple news sites, watch multiple news outlets.

Don't be duped. The press is not the enemy of the people.

But ignorance is.

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