What's the reason?
For if it prosper,
None dare call it treason." -- Sir John Harington (1560-1612)
"Free, representative government is predicated on the assumption that the people, having the facts will make the right decisions when they go to the polls. If the press abdicates its responsibility, the system will fail." -- John Stormer, "None Dare Call it Treason," 1964.
"If this be treason, let us make the most of it," -- Patrick Henry, 1775.
For those who say it is unpatriotic to criticize the government, consider the document written by Thomas Jefferson and published on July 4, 1776. As Americans, we have not only the right but the obligation to criticize our governments, whether local, state or national.
Criticism, then, is not an affront to patriotism, but a right and a duty. Government is not a compact between the rulers and the ruled; it is an agreement among the people themselves, and is the ultimate in patriotism.
That's why the Constitution begins with the phrase, "We, the People," and not with "We the Government."
And that may well be why the arch-conservative author John Stormer so strongly defended the free press in 1964.
Unlike some politicians today, who regularly attack news media as "fake," and expect journalists to abdicate their Constitutionally guaranteed responsibility and do as they're told. History tells us that the first to fall as an autocratic government takes power is a free press.
No comments:
Post a Comment