What good is Freedom of the Press, if media hides and neglects, investigative reporting?
TAT readers,
Welcome back to the national version of the long-running reality show, Survivor. This season’s winners will determine the fate of our constitutional republic. On one side is the Pro-Putin, far-right oligarchy of the Trump administration and on the other… every single honest American. Party politics are dying the death that they should have experienced long ago. It is a false dichotomy that America is split between right and left, R vs. D or liberal vs. conservative.
Under this administration, now in the midst of their second coup attempt, the split is actually patriot vs. fake-patriot, right vs. wrong and moral vs. immoral. The patriot vs. fake-patriot version, is how I frame this most often when I write these essays. True patriots exist in most American political belief systems. They don’t though, in the voting Republican Party. The party now is far-right extremism and anti US constitution. For example, principled conservatives have either formerly left the GOP or vote against them so long as MAGA controls every single agenda item. Today’s Republican Party has long ceased to be conservative, let alone, principled conservatives.
Within the patriot’s side of coup opposition, protests are gaining momentum daily but the disturbing and glaring aspect of this is, that most mainstream media either doesn’t cover them, relegates them to small, hidden stories light on detail or are assigned to good reporters, but most often not experienced investigative reporters. Those media outlets are either hiding from Trump administration condemnation, purposely avoiding serious investigation or are hired guns for the fake-patriotism of today’s GOP.
Serious investigative reporting about understanding the opposition to the Trump administration, could hardly be more important but somehow, it is near impossible for anyone to read about it. Not only are the news/ media outlets risk-averse but they are increasingly under threat from the Trump administration. Only a handful of credible mainstream news services have even touched the story of protests and even they, have a distorted picture of such resistance. The little reporting we get is framed inaccurately as a “progressive movement.” These outlets miss the entire foundation of just how angry and frustrated that most Americans are about the sellout of our republic. Having spent much of my adult life looking at and operating against primary threats to the US and our allies, I know few serious experts that see today’s coup attempt, as a partisan civil war. I certainly do not.
Where are the muckrakers when you need them? To be clear, I don’t believe that there is an absence of quality reporters. I see this more along the line of Newsroom editors being either risk-averse or hobbled by ownership, to tread lightly on hard-hitting coverage of the current administration. There are bright spots such as the Associated Press, The Atlantic and Wired, however, they are the primary bright spots on a largely dark horizon. Other than these bright stars, there are also some excellent individual reporters and niche reporting outlets like the widely acclaimed , the best of the national security and intelligence reporting entities.
Historically, investigative journalists have thrown open the window America uses to see the world as it is, not as oligarchs and other powerbrokers wish it to be seen. Serious investigative journalism in support of truth rather than an agenda is the power of the Fourth Estate. During the Progressive Era, we both experienced the phase of Yellow Journalism and deep social and economic reforms, as the investigative journalists of the era began writing truth that exposed much the same corruption we experience today, especially within the current administration. Women achieved the vote, workers gained rights and oligarchs, were reined in.
Now under the Trump administration, all three are under cruel, unconstitutional and immoral assault. People grew tired of the “fake news” of the era and slowly, via serious reporting that reclaimed the confidence of readers, newspapers reacquired long frustrated readers. As an important note to the end of this era, Journalists began creating and supporting an ethics code for both publishers and reporters.
“The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable. - James Madison on free speech - Free Speech Center - Middle Tennessee State - Fourth President and "Father of our Constitution"
Our founders clearly recognized that a free press was essential to the republic they foresaw. They also expected that a free press would be to some extent, self-regulating. Although the term fourth estate wouldn’t be popularized until 30 years after our Bill of Rights was ratified, our founders knew the value that a free press had provided to informing colonists and eventually citizens, during our Revolutionary War era. That understanding would find its way into the First Amendment to our constitution as part of our Bill of Rights.
At every turn, Trump, Musk, the Cabinet and the GOP congress, support and attempt to intimidate all Americans, especially the press, to willingly reject the three primary focuses of the First Amendment. They are not the first administration to attempt this, but… it is the American people themselves, who so often after experiencing excellent investigative journalism, rejected their intended violations of our constitutional rights. In many ways, these three named rights and those who fight to protect them from Trump types, are emblematic of what it means to be an American. Now, the Project 2025 administration via the P25 180-day Transition Playbook, is doing their damnedest, to deny all of us our birthrights as Americans.
Hey there free press, we need you to perform at this phase of our history, at the very peak of your journalism ethics. The nation needs you. The other three estates or rather branches of government are deeply compromised with a GOP congress, an obsessively cruel and un-American Executive Branch and a SCOTUS, with morally compromised AJs/ Associate Justices of the Supreme Court like, Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. Some of the federal court system justices are performing heroically, but their blocks and appealable decisions are nothing more than a holding action against the tide of despotism.
Preamble "Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. Ethical journalism strives to ensure the free exchange of information that is accurate, fair and thorough. An ethical journalist acts with integrity. The Society declares these four principles as the foundation of ethical journalism and encourages their use in its practice by all people in all media." - SPJ Code of Ethics - Society of Professional Journalists
There are far more FOX News types in the media environment, than courageous other reporting outlets. Should we allow this to continue without opposition, the dam of democracy will falter under the weight of authoritarian assaults. The cracks already exist and are dangerously fragile. Like our courts, the fragility of courageous journalism ethics must be addressed with urgent support from honest Americans that are willing and courageous enough to defend this cornerstone American democracy. There is no help electorally until 2026 but at the rate that the unholy alliance of the Four Horsemen of the MAGA Apocalypse, Autocracy, Oligarchy, White Christian Nationalism and Political Violence are advancing, time is critically urgent.
My final point is that without strong support from consumers of news, ethical journalism will falter. Owners and stockholders are rarely interested in anything other than the bottom-line. Ad dollars and investors are king. Like every other effective boycott in US history, only impacting the bottom-lines of the egregious news outlets, they will not respond with their best efforts. We are at point in our history, that like the Civil War, requires feet in the street, carrying loud, honest voices of patriotism. Not the January 6th type voices, that represent Trump’s and the GOP’s first coup attempt, but the voices of real patriots, that honor our sacred constitutional heritage and are willing to act on it.
If media won’t publish protests and announcements for upcoming protests, we will do like the Minutemen did at the beginning of our war for Independence. We must show up urgently, take action and defend our rights. If we do this, media will follow. Plant your feet firmly outside your local newspaper and write letters to the editors of larger outlets, including the national and international news. Make noise or as iconic congressman from the Civil Rights era, John Lewis said not long before he passed, “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.”
My very best for your week,
Paul
Paul, I could not agree with you more emphatically on the importance of thorough-going, fact-based, ideology-free investigative reporting as a safeguard against graft and corruption. As a former professional journalist I can personally attest to the impact and power that investigative reporting, supported by multiple independently verified sources, can have on exposing bad actors in government or business. Given the abysmal track record of political malfeasance by the previous Democrat administration true investigative journalists should have a field day exposing this rampant criminality. As George Custer told his Seventh Cavalry troopers at The Little Bighorn: "Up and at 'em, boys, it's a target rich environment!"