As Pogo 'Possum Once Said...

We have found the enemy - and it is us!

You hear rants and raves about the First Amendment... always in some sort of reference to freedom of the press. Actually, the subject is in the Constitution as what almost seems an afterthought. The exact pertinent wording is "Congress shall make no law -- abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." Pretty simple.

That "right" from the Bill of Rights has been well-preserved so far as Congress is concerned, largely because the press is itself a most powerful lobby. As has been famously said, one should not argue with someone who buys ink by the barrel. Today, "press" often means people who set no type and buy no ink. And one might well advise against arguing with a man who can speak into a radio microphone and be heard by twenty million pairs of ear.

As one time Republican Presidential candidate Wendell L. Willkie once said, "Freedom of the press is the staff of life for any vital democracy." To me, that trumps the ability to win an argument on the strength of numbers alone.

I am okay with defending freedom of the press, because we so desperately need a free press. But what are we to do when the press commits suicide? The true strength of a free press is the ability to spread the truth. Why have millions of Americans picked up their daily newspaper? Why have millions tuned their television or radio to a favored news program? Because they seek the truth. My mother, a sincere but lightly educated person, believed what was written in the newspaper. Really believed it. Somehow, major newspapers missed that. They ceased to understand that it was printed because it was true, and started believing that it was true because it was printed.

When the press, now more commonly known as "News Media" no longer tells the truth, circulation and audience ratings sag. Today, nearly every major newspaper is losing circulation. Every major television news department is watching their audience ratings plummet. They certainly cannot blame the Congress. They may blame their competition... the internet, or whatever is handy. But the real problem is that the readers and the viewers are beginning to doubt the truth in what they read in their newspapers and see on their television.

Readers and viewers have good reason to be doubters. The September 12 anti-big government protests in Washington, D.C. is a textbook illustration. Photos of the crowds sent home by participants clearly show hundreds of thousands of participants, perhaps a million or two, but editors at the major media outlets just cannot put their political bias aside and report that truth.

Will we reach the point where newspapers are no longer printed? Will television broadcasting one day become solely an entertainment and sports medium?

Will our democracy survive without that staff of life that is a free press?