President Trump is wrong to ban The New York Times, CNN, LA Times, Politico and other major news media organizations from government news briefings. Attacking the press is a dictatorial practice long used in banana republics. Urging the FBI to say the story of Russian contacts with Trump staffers is untrue, is wrong. Finding the leakers within an organization is one of the first things a dictator does. Control information and you control the nation.
It matters not if you are a republican, democrat or independent, a free press is essential to a democratic society. The presses responsibility is to ask the hard questions, to probe for the truth, to report wrongs and especially to speak reason to power. All democratic republics will self-corrupt into an Autocracy or Fascism if unquestioned in their actions.
All Americans, pro-Trump or op-Trump should demand equal access to daily briefings and adherence to first amendment guarantees. Free reporting benefits all sides in the long run. When President Trump attacks those organizations who report information he doesn’t like, he diminishes democracy and the Presidency. Every President has adversarial encounters with the press even Jefferson. Power likes secrets. The Press serves the governed, not the governors.
Unless the press stands together and objects to arbitrary news organizations exclusions, we will no longer have a free press in America.
If one is barred, then let all boycott.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment