Journalism
"Think about any president you’ve opposed in your lifetime; or even serious actions taken by a powerful elected official. There’s not a one of us who could not think of at least one transgression."
About 240 years ago, Thomas Jefferson wrote the following (boldface my emphasis):
“The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and 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.”
Journalism is also known in our country as “the Fourth Estate.” The term actually goes back to England several centuries ago, where the three classes with representation in Parliament were the three estates. The Fourth Estate were all the rest of the people — who had to scratch and claw to be heard and call b.s. when the insiders were running afoul.
Journalists, while never perfect (like government, business… and the rest of humanity) — are the essential watchdogs keeping an eye on the powerful in our society. That’s why Jefferson said that he wouldn’t even want a democratic form of government if we didn’t have a free press.
Think about any president you’ve opposed in your lifetime; or even serious actions taken by a powerful elected official. There’s not a one of us who could not think of at least one transgression.
Maybe it was LBJ and Robert McNamara lying to the country about the Vietnam War — uncovered through the release of the Pentagon Papers. Maybe it was The Washington Post’s reporting of the Watergate break-in and Richard Nixon’s subversion of the Justice and Intelligence Communities. Maybe it was coverage and monitoring of Joe McCarthy’s phony “communist” hearings. Maybe it was the NSA’s mass surveillance programs. Maybe it was Abu Ghraib. Maybe it was…
Here’s just how important we thought that publishing the news was — even in our country’s infancy: The U.S. Congress provided the Continental Army with a printer so that Americans could receive bulletins about what was happening during the Revolutionary War.
Now, here we are, 240 years later, with a new presidential administration that has already tested the law by issuing a record number of executive orders in the first 100 days — with an accompanying record number of lawsuits to adjudicate each potential reach.
Love him or hate him, the actions of President Trump have massively reinforced the critical role that journalists play in our political life.
Yesterday, Federal District Court Judge Beryl Howell ruled against the President and in favor of law firm Perkins Coie, which had been representing clients in opposition to Trump. It was the fourth such ruling against the President’s admitted attacks on attorneys representing individuals he does not like. Judge Howell could not have been clearer in her ruling:
“The importance of independent lawyers to ensuring the American judicial system’s fair and impartial administration of justice has been recognized in this country since its founding era.”
The press has been reporting on these and myriad other cases — many that are not always front and center in the public eye — for months. On tariffs, immigration, employee firings and freezing of funds and reductions in budgets that were passed by Congress, etc.
I was once a straight news reporter for local NBC and CBS-TV affiliates in three states. Even with local news, we took our jobs very seriously and tried incredibly hard to get it right. Every day.
Once I became an opinion journalist 10 years ago with my first book, Unlock Congress, I did every bit of research myself — and then had every sentence of the book fact-checked before publication. I was so anal about getting it right that I formatted all 521 endnotes myself. The copy editor was shocked (and thrilled). I didn’t want to get anything wrong.
When I launched Jewdicious nearly two years ago with 18 writers I’d be editing almost daily, I became arguably more obsessed about getting it right. About being “judicious.”
When a the most powerful man in the free world demeans, lies and hammers journalists just for doing what Thomas Jefferson knew was impossibly important, it makes their jobs harder. Yet they press on. And very, very few make big money doing it. Reporters report on current events and our government because they believe in it.
Journalism is every bit as American as the Constitution or apple pie.
Today, I bet an exacta box in the Kentucky Derby on the 8 and 13 horses. Their names are “Journalism” and “Publisher.”
Regardless of the race outcome, I’ll keep betting on both. Every day. They are our country’s lifeblood. Each of them represent the name of the 5 horse: “America’s Promise.”
Maybe I’ll threw a few bucks on that colt too.
MICHAEL GOLDEN is the cofounder of One Million Degrees, a national award-winning journalist and bestselling author. The Golden Mean is where he works to convert ‘hidden lessons’ into active wisdom.
Brilliant as always, Mikey! BTW, I appreciated your guest columnist a week or two ago, who wrote the article about the town in northern Israel.
so?? what's the point???