Member-only story
Freedom from the Press
The press is not free when truth is not its central goal. When political bias is the underlying foundation for its reporting. At the founding of this country the idea of a free press was considered essential to the creation of a healthy democratic republic. The current state of the press is making us all sick.
At the outset of our republic a free press was deemed critical to the exploration of the truth and as a protection against a tyrannical government. Thomas Jefferson described the free press and its relationship to the establishment of this country as;
“No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may be governed by reason and truth. Our first object should therefore be, to leave open to him all the avenues to truth. The most effectual hitherto found, is the freedom of the press.”
The concept that the public would view the press as a biased organ of government, or a tool of one political party, is nobody’s idea of a “free” press or media.
In a Gallup poll released in March respondents were asked to express their level of trust in the press to report “fully, accurately and fairly.” For the purposes of the survey the press included, television, newspapers, and radio. The results are not surprising to anyone whose mind and eyes are open.
