The President-Elect and the Press

Mr. President Elect you are wrong. To denigrate and belittle a news organization because you don’t like what they report and to do so in public is rude, crude and harmful to the entire Fourth Estate and the sacred traditions of our democracy. Mr. President Elect you have far greater responsibilities than the assuagement of a bruised ego or the girding of thin-skin by retribution.

To the presidential press corps and all members of the fourth estate. It is your responsibility to speak reason to power. It is your responsibility to probe, to research, to check and recheck facts. The truth will eventually surface but only from a free press. Stand together.

Mr. President Elect “There is room for all shades of opinion,” the great Justice Learned Hand once wrote and he added, “persecution of none.”