“Don’t Kill The Messenger”

By Hank Silverberg

The phase “Don’t kill the messenger” dates back to 441 BC, and is mostly attributed to Sophocles, a Greek philosopher and playwright. In his scenario, a messenger comes from the battlefield bringing the King bad news. The King, enraged by the news, kills the messenger. Shakespeare re-used the concept in both “Henry IV” and “Anthony and Cleopatra.” Today’s primary messenger, of course, is the press, and the man in the White House appears to be acting like an enraged king. America woke up to this tweet on Sunday morning: 

	Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
8/5/18, 7:38 AM The Fake News hates me saying that they are the Enemy of the People only because they know it’s TRUE. I am providing a great service by explaining this to the American People. They purposely cause great division & distrust. They can also cause War! They are very dangerous & sick!

This is pure fiction worthy of George Orwell or Aldus Huxley. I continue to wonder why Mr. Trump’s advisers haven’t found a way to take away his phone or control of his twitter feed.   

 There have been many instances in the past where a President of the United States has been angered by individual media reports and have expressed their dismay. Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson were successful in imposing some press restrictions, but those were during the Civil War and World War One, not in peacetime. Richard Nixon, at the height of Watergate, had an “enemies list” that included some reporters, and while it looked intimidating some journalists actually wore it with pride. Never  before though, has an American president assaulted the entire profession—the only profession that is protected by the U-S Constitution.  

This constant attack on the fourth estate is dangerous to our republic. It weakens the vital role of the media as a check and balance to government or corporate corruption and excess.  But we can’t put all the blame on Donald Trump.

Journalists themselves need to take some of the responsibility. I spent 40 years in the news trenches, reporting stories from city hall to the White House, from local school boards to Congress. In most of the newsrooms I worked in, we used to joke:  "Hey, if you don’t get some reaction to your story then you didn’t do a good job.” That included both positive and negative reaction. All reporters get negative emails and phone calls, sometimes threatening ones, about stories they report. Occasionally a negative reaction is worth a follow up story, but often it is unfounded and just ignored. Taking the heat is part of the job. 

But these days, when the threat comes from the President of the United States, it’s hard to ignore. This past week, CNN’s Jim Acosta, who has taken direct attacks from Mr. Trump, asked a legitimate question in the White House briefing room.   

Trump has used the expression “enemy of the people” to describe journalists on more than one occasion. That phrase evokes tactics and terminology used by Stalin, Hitler and other dictators known for mass murder of their own people. Those mass murders historically started with journalists. 

There has always been some danger for reporters in the field and on occasion they have been verbally harassed by the public. But in the past two years, reporters here in the United States have been verbally assaulted at Trump events continuously. They have been threatened with physical harm because the President has encouraged it. And though it has not been directly linked to the Trump threats, one man decided he hated the press so much that he killed five members of the Capital Gazette Newspaper staff in Maryland.

The exchange on the link below came when Acosta asked White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee-Sanders about the use of the phrase “enemy of the people.”

CSPAN

@cspan

Complete exchange between @Acosta and @PressSec on whether or not the press is the enemy or the people.

Full video here: cs.pn/2O2NPQu

It was a legitimate question, and a typical response from Sanders, who never contradicts what the President says and never gives a direct answer to anything. 

I have no problem with Acosta’s question. It appeared to be an attempt to calm the rhetoric a bit. But he should not have walked out of the briefing or followed it up with on-air whining about the harassment he received at a Trump event last week. That plays into the scenario that somehow journalists play a partisan role in our politics. Reporters should never be part of the story. Their best reaction to criticism is to keep producing stories that, to the best of their knowledge, tell the truth. And they should do so without their opinion filtering in. That is journalism, not partisanship, even though it may show some politician in a bad light or catch one in a direct lie as it often has with Mr. Trump.  

The general public should also take part of the responsibility for accepting everything they hear as either the truth or a lie. There are many shades of gray in between those extremes. Americans should stay informed from a variety of news sources and make decisions based on reason, compassion and thought, rather than knee jerk reactions to outrageous statements, popular misconceptions or prejudice.      

Which leads me to one final point. The Newseum in Washington, which is dedicated to journalism and the free press, has a huge map on one of its walls.  It shows the level of press freedom in countries around the world. Those with no free press are colored red. Those with a fully free press, like the United States, are in green. There are other colors depending on levels of press freedom.  It’s a great visual and Americans should feel proud that the USA is in green.  

This past week “The Freedom Forum", which is associated with the Newseum released it’s annual “State of the First Amendment” report. 

https://ijr.com/2018/08/1114019-percentage-americans-first-amendment/

 They talked to more than a thousand people in May and June and only ONE person was able to name all five of the First Amendment rights  Even more frightening, only 40% could name any of the rights and only 13% listed freedom of the press as one of them. The Forum’s job is to promote the free press and the Newseum gift shop has been selling tee-shirts for years that say “Trust me, I’m a reporter.” Many journalists have purchased one and worn it with pride.

(An interview I conducted by the map in 2015)

But the same store recently started selling a tee-shirt which read “You Are Very Fake News.”  After the sale of that shirt was criticized the Newseum, said it was meant to be humorous. Many journalists did not find it funny.  I find it appalling, considering the current on-going attacks from the White House.  The very public negative reaction led  the Newseum to pull  the Tee-shirt from the shelves.

	Newseum (@Newseum)
8/4/18, 1:44 PM We have removed the "You Are Very Fake News" t-shirts from the gift shop and online. We made a mistake and we apologize. A free press is an essential part of our democracy and journalists are not the enemy of the people. bit.ly/2n9j9S9

  

Instead, the Newseum should be carrying the tee-shirt being sold to support the staff and families at the Capital Gazette. 

There is no doubt though, that the constant barrage by the president and his surrogates about “fake news” is taking a toll. Add to that the constant whining from one news organization or another about who is more bias is further damaging the journalism profession and the country as a whole.    

All of these issues combined leaves me with this question. “How long will it be before the United States portion of that big map on the Newseum wall goes from green to red?    

                (Your comments and suggestions are welcome in the comment section below. I am currently looking for a sponsor  for this blog or for a distributor. You may contact me at hsilverberg@gmail.com if interested)

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