Pastor Martin Niemoller warned us of the importance of speaking out when we see our rights eroding. He famously wrote about his time in the Dachau Concentration Camp:
“First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the socialists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Catholic. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.”
He reminds us of the dangers of not recognizing creeping incrementalism, when small steps are being taken to abridge our rights, laying the foundation for larger steps that take away all of our rights.
Which brings us to what’s happening right now with the media in America.
When our founders formed our nation, they only named one industry in the Constitution.
They didn’t argue that the shipbuilding industry needed to be protected at all costs, or the agriculture industry, or even the arms industry.
They didn’t even think the legislative branch was that important.
But, in the First Amendment to the Constitution, our founders wrote that, “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press….”
Our founders wanted to protect the press. They realized that freedom of the press was essential. They recognized that a nation could not be strong without a press able to operate outside of the realm of government oversight and control.
In fact, Thomas Jefferson once famously said that, “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
But times have changed since our Constitution was written, and today, what is supposed to be a free press is under attack from the government.
Slowly but surely, our government is infringing upon the rights of the media, and eating away at freedom of the press.
Nowhere is there more evident than with the ongoing AP leaks scandal, and with the new revelation that Fox News reporter James Rosen was investigated by the Department of Justice for his coverage of the State Department and North Korea.
In both of these cases, the federal government subpoenaed hundreds of emails and phone call records under the guise of national security.
But what the federal government seems to have forgotten is that freedom of the press, if it is to work, must be nearly absolute, that there should be no boundaries to the protection of that right.
It’s a sad commentary on our times when I find myself agreeing with Brit Hume over at Fox News, but last night, he was right on point about the federal government’s recent intrusion into the workings of the press.
On Fox News’ “Special Report” last night, Hume said that, “The government has a right indeed, arguably, a duty to protect the nation’s secrets, some of which are more secret than they ought to be. But that aside, there are legitimate national security secrets that it’s the government’s job to protect. And when they leak out, the government has a right and a duty to investigate. But what the government has traditionally done in the past is to investigate the leaker and not, if you will, the leakee. That provides the balance between the government’s job to find out what happened and the press’ right to pursue information. That’s the way it’s been done before. That’s the way it seemed to have been going up until now.”
Traditionally, when there were leaks to the press, the government has investigated, but it has investigated the source of the leak. It has not gone directly after the journalist or reporter who reported on the leak.
But now, it appears that our government is going after both the source of the leak, and the members of the media reporting on it, and not only is that unprecedented, it’s unconstitutional.
This should concern us all.
I don’t want to end up channeling Pastor Niemoller and saying something like, “First they came for the AP and Fox News’ James Rosen, but I wasn’t a part of the AP, and I didn’t like Fox News, so I didn’t speak up.”
So I’m speaking up now.
Freedom of the press needed to be protected in 1787, and it needs to be protected today.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
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