As someone who spent 30 years in newspaper newsrooms, it both saddens and alarms me to see what\u2019s happening to newspapers. The number of newspapers published in the United States shrinks daily, and the ones that are left are failing miserably to do their job.<\/p>\n
I mean \u201ctheir job\u201d literally. Their duty. The Constitution guarantees freedom to one industry and one industry only: the press (First Amendment: \u201cCongress shall make no law respecting \u2026 the press.\u201d ). It was done that way so that it could be the public\u2019s independent watchdog over the government.<\/p>\n
Incidentally, when I say press here, I mean newspapers and the wider written-word press, but not the on-air folks. Their news shows may do a good job of covering government, but they are not free from government control. For one thing, they use public airways, which means they must be licensed by the government, which means the government can shut them down any time simply by canceling their licenses.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not the only way the government can control the radio\/television industry. Look at what just happened at CBS.<\/p>\n
Skydance wanted to purchase CBS\u2019s parent company, Paramount, and Paramount was eager to sell. But to close the deal they needed Donald Trump\u2019s permission, and to get it Skydance had to promise him it would eliminate all DEI programs and not implement any new ones, and would create a new ombudsman to field complaints of ideological bias in news coverage. The ombudsman would report direct to the company\u2019s president.<\/p>\n
Further, Skydance has not denied Trump’s assertions that it agreed to run $20 million worth of public service announcements consistent with his ideological beliefs. Also, although Paramount says its firing of TV star Stephen Colbert had to do with finances, not pressure from Trump, Trump publicly delighted in the firing, and the timing is clearly suspicious. Also, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr said Skydance promised to make other “significant changes\u201d in the network (he did not name them). And, finally, Paramount paid Trump $16 million to settle a libel lawsuit that virtually all libel lawyers agree Paramount could have easily won. (Trump claimed CBS News had libeled him by editing an interview with Kamala Harris before airing it.)<\/p>\n
Bottom line: Government controls the airwaves, but not the printed word. And that\u2019s why it is both so sad and alarming that today\u2019s newspapers are failing so miserably to do their duty. Robert Hubbell, who writes the Today\u2019s Edition Newsletter, put it best when he wrote: As \u201cthe Mad King wades deeper into the swelling surf, commanding the waves to retreat, \u2026 legacy media outlets are reporting breathlessly on each dramatic but futile gesture while ignoring the slow but inexorable rising tide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead of focusing on the real story \u2013 Do we have a child seducer in the White House? — they\u2019ve been focusing on Trump\u2019s stupid absurdities, such as his fantasy of adding a ballroom onto the White House.<\/p>\n
Often, the press plays down the Epstein scandal on purpose. Billionaires are buying up newspapers and other print media in growing numbers, and they have every reason not to cross him politically.<\/p>\n
Some billionaires, like Rupert Murdoch and Michael Bloomberg are longtime media moguls who made their fortunes in the news business. Others, like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, bought publications as a side investment after building a substantial fortune in another industry. Billionaires own part or all of several of America’s influential national newspapers, including but certainly not limited to The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times , in addition to magazines, local papers and online publications.<\/p>\n
Trump is making a lot of money for those billionaires, which naturally creates a conflict of interest with their duty to be our watchdogs. Too often, money trumps duty.<\/p>\n
But whatever the reason newspapers are failing us, the sad and alarming fact is that they are.<\/p>\n