By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--August 16, 2018
American Politics, News | CFP Comments | Reader Friendly | Subscribe | Email Us
More than 300 news publications across the country are joining together to defend the role of a free press and denounce President Trump’s ongoing attacks on the news media in coordinated editorials publishing Thursday, according to a tally by The Boston Globe. The project was spearheaded by staff members of the editorial page at the Globe, who write: “This relentless assault on the free press has dangerous consequences. We asked editorial boards from around the country – liberal and conservative, large and small — to join us today to address this fundamental threat in their own words.”
Marjorie Pritchard, the Globe‘s deputy managing editor of the editorial page who led the effort, told NPR’s Morning Edition, “This editorial project is not against the Trump administration’s agenda. It’s a response to put us into the public discourse and defend the First Amendment.” She said the reason to publish the editorials now was “because the press needs to have a voice on this. … We’ve done individual editorials, but I think it’s, there is some strength in numbers of just defending a constitutionally enshrined pillar of democracy.”Self-reverential as ever, the news media has decided to not only make itself the story, but launch into a major departure from its normal mode of operation in order to stop the scourge of people criticizing them. Yet nothing about Marjorie Pritchard’s explanation of this makes sense. The press hardly needs to “put itself into the public discourse.” It is and has long been the leading player in the public discourse. When average people have as big a voice as your typical media outlet, then we’ll all have the opportunity to exercise our First Amendment rights to full and most powerful effect. For the moment, it’s surreal to the point of absurdity for the press to claim they’re not players in the public discourse. They’re the biggest players. And if these people think there’s a need to “defend the First Amendment” against anything the president is doing, they need to go back and re-read the First Amendment for what it says – and doesn’t say. Criticism of the news media is not in conflict with the First Amendment. Indeed, those who attack the media are merely exercising their own rights every bit as much as the media are exercising theirs by publishing.
View Comments
Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain
Follow all of Dan’s work, including his series of Christian spiritual warfare novels, by liking his page on Facebook.