Despite President Biden’s declaration at the Howard University commencement that the threat to democracy is “white supremacy,’ the recent release of the Durham Report proves otherwise. Yes, once again one of the nation’s three letter agencies designed to uphold the law and safeguard the fundamental principles of our democratic republic has proven that depending on the political party under investigation there is not equal justice under the law. Unfortunately, this has now become the norm in American politics.
Perhaps what is even more disturbing is that where once the media or fourth estate would aggressively pursue a story of such magnitude it now looks the other way and refuses to acknowledge it failed the American public. I came of age during the Watergate era, and had it not been for aggressive in-depth reporting that scandal would never have seen the light of day. I suspect this would never happen in today’s environment.
Unfortunately, now most major news corporations are simply a mouthpiece for the Democrat Party and show no shame in looking beyond obvious headlines. I suspect real journalists like Walter Cronkite and Chet Huntley and David Brinkley are shaking their heads in shame and would not even recognize what passes as “news.”
As originally understood by many of America’s founders, the open circulation of the truth through a free and probing press would serve both society and the individual. As Thomas Jefferson explains:
“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.”
In addition, many of America’s founders also understood the press as an essential bulwark against government for the securing of individual rights. Jefferson, again, summarizes:
“I am…for freedom of the press, and against all violations of the constitution to silence by force and not by reason the complaints or criticisms, just or unjust, of our citizens against the conduct of their agents.”
The media is a means by which to enforce accountability and responsibility in the government and thereby compel government’s virtue. All American’s regardless of political affiliation or party should demand accountability, honesty, and integrity from those who determine what is passes for today’s “news.”
So, what is the real threat to our Democracy – The Jan 6th “Insurrection,” White Supremacy, or climate change, etc. ? No, it is a complaint and complicit media that fails to probe, question or seek the truth without which our nation will continue to slide into the abyss. May God help us.
