My favorite phrase from President Ronald Reagan’s era is, “Trust, but verify.”
I happen to believe that, “Trust, but verify,” does not apply only to matters involving nuclear disarmament.
I believe that, “Trust, but verify,” applies, also, to the public’s important need and, Constitutional right to have a free press/media monitoring the daily operations of our government.
Indeed, it was Reagan who declared a “Freedom of the Press Day,” in August, 1985, with Proclamation 5360 (https://reaganlibrary.archives.gov/archives/speeches/1985/80285c.htm).
I voted for Ronald Reagan — twice.
Our free press/media needs to be the public’s inspective, magnifying glass on government operations.
As the public needs to trust the daily operations of government, the public also needs a free press/media to verify what our government tells us.
We must never forget that it was our free press/media that helped expose the abuses of power rife in both the Tammany Hall and Watergate political scandals of our American past, in addition to helping expose many other governmental scandals.
As such, Americans must never allow any government official, or entity, to impede our free press’/ media’s access to them — whether the official is a President or not.
Hence, it seems quite disturbing that our President-elect seems to have been exhibiting behaviors that appear to impede the transparent reporting of a White House-based press corps.
Actions by any Presidents’ administration to restrict the free flow of government information to the American people, in my opinion, must be viewed with a well-focused, wary eye.
It is alarming to me, as well, that our President-elect has chosen to disseminate videotaped messages and “tweets” (dictums?) to the public, videotaped messages and “tweets” that allow him to avoid the public scrutiny of a press corps’ questions, questions that would be asked on behalf of our American citizenry.
Of course, there are times when a President’s video-release is appropriate such as in times of a national crisis.
However, in my opinion, when a President-elect produces videos and/or “tweets” to make significant announcements, excluding the press from asking salient questions, a dangerous precedent is being set.
The art of communication must be a two-way street, not a one-sided monologue.
American society is based on the public’s ability to use its own critical thinking skills to assess situations: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? Explain.
Children are taught to ask critical thinking questions in school.
Should voting adults be less sophisticated when scrutinizing the actions of our President?
When a President-elect does not allow for probing questions involving his statements, I believe our society has entered dangerous, potentially-dictatorial waters.
As a child in elementary school, I learned about a New York printer whom I still consider to be a great American hero of pre-Constitution freedom of the press: John Peter Zenger.
After Zenger published critical attacks against New York’s governor, William Cosby, Zenger was arrested (1734) and brought to trial for seditious libel.
Zenger’s attorney, Andrew Hamilton, summarized his effective defense by saying the press has, “a liberty both of exposing and opposing tyrannical power by speaking and writing truth.”
I believe no truer words have ever been spoken.
Ultimately, the jury found Zenger not guilty.
Without freedom of the press, leaders have the potential to destroy even the finest of well-established democracies.
Free-access for the press to observe the workings of government, including our American President’s daily activities, is key to a well-informed citizenry who, in turn, can make future, educated decisions.
I believe potentially despotic leaders are born the minute they attempt to impede or to control our free press.
Our American citizenry must remember always: Knowledge is power.
The right of the American people to freedom of the press, guaranteed by our Constitution’s First Amendment, must be guarded closely.
One only has to examine history books to see the negative, very destructive outcomes that resulted when various countries’ leaders… both past and present… sought to control their countries’ free press by self-filtering public information to further their own objectives.
The job of our American President is a 24/7 position… answerable, at all times, to the American people.
A job of the American people is to assess a President’s actions on an ongoing basis… and, to ensure the President embraces the laws of the land.
Beware any administration that attempts to limit our news media’s access to what should be the transparent workings of government.
Of course, when issues of national security are involved, vital secrets of our defenses should not be disclosed.
However, the traditional, open-access of our news media to daily operations involving our President, his Cabinet members, his staff members, and all other federal employees should be an unquestionable right of our American people.
Our great founding father, Thomas Jefferson, once said, “… were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter”
May it always be so.
Kathy Rittel
East Williston