Under Attack
By Hank
Silverberg
We are under attack! Our freedom is now threatened, and no one
seems to notice. I am not talking about the Russians hacking into our election
process. That is also an attack and I may have more to write about that when we know more about President Trump's meeting with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.
The latest skirmish in a two-year-old war
that I want to focus on came in London, as Trump held a joint news conference
with British Prime Minister Theresa May. Mr. Trump wouldn’t take a question from CNN’s
Jim Acosta, calling the network “fake news.” He jumped to John Roberts of Fox News
instead. Then later on when Kristen
Welker of NBC News asked a question, he attacked her and her network because he
didn’t like her well-structured and legitimate question on the Putin
meeting. Trump called her question
“dishonest reporting.” Check out the
video at this link to see the exchange for yourself.
Trump used
to get a paycheck from NBC for that low-brow reality show called “The
Apprentice," but now he continually calls NBC News “fake news.” Barely a week
goes by that he does not attack one of the country’s legacy newspapers as “The
failing New York Times.”
Historically the White House press corps and presidents don’t always get along.
Richard Nixon’s famous confrontation with Dan Rather right in the middle
of the Watergate scandal in 1974 comes to mind.
But that seems quite tame by today’s
standards. Nixon went on to answer Rather’s question, though in a typical
Nixonian roundabout way he avoided a real answer.
Nixon had his enemies list of political
and media figures, and had he not been stopped by Watergate, who knows what he
would have done with it in his second term.
Other presidents have criticized the press.
But John F. Kennedy provided the most appropriate view of the relationship in an
interview with NBC in 1962.
“It is never pleasant to be reading things
frequently that are not
agreeable news. But I would say it is (an) invaluable
arm of the presidency as a check really on what is going on in administration.”
He noted that totalitarian systems, at the time he mentioned the Soviet Union,
are at a “terrific disadvantage.”
 |
| (Courtesy JFK Library) |
He went on to say, “Even though we never like it, and even
though we wish they didn’t write it, there isn’t any doubt that we could not do
the job at all in a free society without a very, very active press.”
At the same time though, Kennedy also
authorized a wiretap of two New York Times columnists believed to have secured
classified information.
What
is different about today is the constant bombardment every day on
twitter, on the air and in public forums on the role of the media in a free
society. It’s not just one bad reporter, or one bad story or one national
security issue. In the mind of Donald J. Trump, the media is the “enemy of the
people” –more so than Vladimir Putin—who most likely ordered his intelligence
apparatus to hack into our election campaign with an effort to influence the
outcome. (It is not yet clear if that worked.)
It
is this which creates danger. In London, Trump attacked two networks. He favored
the one which favors him the most, Fox News. Trump makes every effort to convince
viewers and readers that only the news organizations he likes are telling the truth.
The media is a diverse group. It is clear
that SOME so-called journalists have lost their way or their common sense, and have forgotten what objective reporting is. Too many have moved to commentary, analysis
and opinion without labeling it as such, and have cast aside the basic rules.
But thousands more still hold on to the long-time standards of fairness and
objectivity. For their efforts they are then confronted with a verbal assault by the man in the
White House unjustly and with malice. Those attacks are being reinforced by
thousands of the President’s base supporters who do not understand the role of
the media in protecting a free society from tyranny, or don't care. The President’s constant attacks on the free
press undermine the 1st Amendment to the U-S Constitution, which he
is sworn to uphold.
Some
people have suggested that the media should stop covering White House press
briefings or the President’s events as a protest of his attack on the
press. But then all you would get would
be Presidential tweets and spoon-fed photo-ops. Others have suggested all
the media should walk out of events where he starts attacking one of them. You
probably couldn’t get them all to do that because they are competitors. But even if it happened, all you
would hear then is the message the President wants you to have. And as we have
seen time and time and time again, that is often not reality. In fact, and I
don’t think this is going too far, many of those messages are often flat out
lies.
This threatens your freedom more than
hackers from Russia and increases the likelihood that a madman like the one in
North Korea will succeed in destroying us.
You probably are thinking right now, “Oh, he is exaggerating.” So, ask these questions: How much would you know about the
Russian hacking or North Korea without a free press? How much would you
know about anything if the only place your information was coming from was an
early morning Presidential tweet or a broadcast network that has endorsed and
promotes those in power?
Our Founding Fathers included the 1st
Amendment in the Bill of Rights based on their own experience with tyranny.
They protected the press and made it a watchdog over government misdeeds, malfeasance
and corruption of power.
There are times when the press is the
only thing protecting us from totalitarianism. Kennedy warned us about that. Even
Nixon knew it, eventually (he resigned). It’s time the public and the media help Mr.
Trump learn that lesson too.
How?
First, anytime you hear the President scream “fake news,” read or watch
what he is complaining about. Get a
second or a third opinion before forming your own opinion. Second, go to the polls and elect people who won’t
act like trained poodles. We need a congress and a court system that will balance
out the power of our government instead of rubber stamping it. That's the way our Founding Fathers designed it.
(Your comments and suggestions are welcome below)
(You can purchase a copy of my latest book at Amazon.com, BN.com or hanksilverbergbooks.com)
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