I'll
tell you a story from a long, long time ago – almost 30 years.
I
grew up in Communism, through my 15th year of life. This
was your textbook communism, with a dictator at the top and a
government so loyal to him there was no room to pry it with a
crowbar. The government was made up of not only loyalists to the
president, but mostly by his close family members: all the children,
his wife, and then extended family.
It
was the Communism you (should) learn about in school, where regular
people like you and me, regular civilians are forced to believe
whatever the one leader of the country says. I took propaganda
lessons that I had to pass an exam on every year (these were
enforced, you had no choice) for the first eight years of my school
life. I had friends whose parents were interrogated and sometimes
killed in beatings because they would not think whatever the
government wanted them to think. The books we were allowed to read
were “edited” by the government, to match the propaganda. Some
brave people still had the original copies of uncensored books, but
they ripped up their true covers and they wrapped the copies in the
covers of the “approved” books, so that the Security police who
came searching their homes would not suspect they had “dirty”
copies of the censored books.
The
local and national papers were all government-controlled. So was the
one TV channel the whole country had access to and the one radio
channel, too. There was nothing printed, or broadcast on TV or radio
that was not controlled by the government. If your radio could reach
The Voice of America broadcast, or Radio Free Europe, you'd go to
jail for a long, long time, and you would never come out, quite
often. As I said: textbook Communism.
And
then, when I was almost 15, The Revolution came. One night, a handful
of people, lead by mostly writers, artists, and students overthrew
the regime, killed the dictator and his wife and we were, dare I say
it, free. During that one night, we were cautiously,
and very frighteningly, elated by the possibility, by the hope, and
the dream, that our little country could possibly now be free.
Free to express ourselves, to think what we wanted to think, free to
choose our profession without it being chosen for us, free to buy
whatever we wanted, in whatever much quantity we wanted to buy!
That
one night my dad asked me to tell him just ONE reason for which I am
happy that communism is now extinct in Romania. Just ONE reason. So,
I told him: I am happy they are gone because now we can have freedom
of the press, and freedom of the written word. Now, whenever I read a
newspaper or a book, I said, I will be sure I am getting the true
writing, intended by the writer, and not whatever a party loyalist
deemed to be “appropriate” for me to read.
Many
moons later, I am in the US of A, till recently deemed the “most
free country in the World”, my dream of being her citizen
fulfilled, and I see with my own eyes something that I never thought
I would see again: I see how politicians attack the press, deeming it
untruthful and lying, while they proclaim to their supporters that
they, and only they and their loyals, have the whole truth and
nothing besides. And the unbelievable happens: the supporters (for
they are painfully many) believe this.
It's
happening again: I am telling you, dear friends, from personal
experience, and not from what someone taught me about Hitler, or
Stalin: the first institution a dictator smears and tries to kill is
the press. The first value they kill is free speech. Their very first step is to denigrate it. And for us, here, in the US, at least for now, this works!
The
reason, of course, is simple. But blinded as we are in America, by
the freedom we have taken for granted for many years, and by the
ignorance a mediocre school system and an even more mediocre
political education system encourages, we do not see this simple
reason: it's the press, and anyone who defends free speech, that must
be killed first in order for the leader to manipulate the population
however they please. The press makes people think.
Tyrants have no need for people's thinking, because the only thoughts
that matter to them are theirs. They deny everything else of value,
because of the huge ego that they lead with which has to be the one,
the only, governing power and focus over all the minions. How
else do you submit them?!
There
is a very important reason and not a coincidence, that your First
Amendment (and not the second or the third) protects free speech.
Without free speech, you have no democracy. The rest of the
amendments are optional in a democracy. Without free speech you have
dictatorship. You have easy mind control, and you have tyranny.
Period. End of story. No arguments. History has proven this very big
platitude for hundreds of years now. No more proof needed.
The
press is and will always be, in my mind, and as a matter of fact, the
one defender of free speech. By its very nature, it must be. I
recently saw the movie The Post, which is a pretty good story,
well done, for many reasons. It resonated with me from many
perspectives, not only because of my government-controlled upbringing
years, but also from the perspective of being a former newspaper
employee and a good (I think) friend to many people who are still in
this business or still respect it.
And
then I read comments from random people online who said that (I quote
from memory because I am too disgusted to go get the actual quote) “I
am not going to spend my money on this very clearly far left
political propaganda movie. After I have seen enough in the past year
and a half to know not to trust these rags.” (referring,
perhaps to The Post in
particular and newspapers in general?!) This just about broke
the camel's back for me.
I
have seen these comments (and oh, so much more!) online for the past
two years now (and who hasn't, if you're paying attention?!), that
Trump and “them” are all good and right and it's the media that
makes them look bad. The belief of the ordinary American nowadays is
that newspapers and news outlets, somehow are all on
this platform to lie about everything Trump, and he, somehow, is the
only one telling the truth. This boggles my mind, in a way, and in
another: I can totally see what he's doing and how … it's working
for so many people, and to our detriment! The Communism in my little
country, just as Nazism in Germany was seemingly the “will of the
people” when first instated.
Just
to make sure I get it out there: I am not endorsing The Post,
or any other particular newspaper or news outlet. I am just endorsing
the thinking, inquisitive, and ever truth searching human mind. The
Post (in the movie and in the past few years) has just merely
exposed mostly (if not always in entirety) verifiable truths that
should at least make us think of where we get our news and who we can
trust. All this while our political leaders have done nothing but
stepped from one wasp nest into another, amongst law suits, mystery
accusations, revolving doors of firing and hiring for key-level
positions, and yes, lies. A lot of lies that have been proven not
once, or twice, but multiple times by many sources to be just that.
But I am getting ahead of myself, because I do not want to keep this
entry specific to a particular regime, person, or time in history.
The lesson that The Post, the movie, teaches us, I think, is
much deeper, and much larger than any one reality.
Anyone
who knows me and has read my blogs knows: I rarely do politics, but
these things had to be said:
Politicians
lie. No matter which side of the aisle you're on, even the best of
them, even the ones I deem to be my favorite, most inspiring, true
in character and morality, they all lie. For whatever reason,
security, or politics, they all lie. Little lies, big lies, they all
do it. They seldom apologize for it, and they seldom get caught.
They have armies of staff to bury the evidence. This is not
conspiracy theory, this is fact.
After
spending 10 years amongst journalists, I am here to tell you: they
lie much, much less than any politician I have ever experienced. For
obvious reasons, but if you're having trouble knowing what they
are, I will spell some of them for you:
Their
lies are 100% verifiable and they have zero protection against
them. They have no secret police, no PR protecting them. It's their
word against the mountain of evidence, and their lies, if they
happen, are very short lived.
Their
lies are insular: if one reporter or even one paper lies, and it is
a legitimate lie, the rest of the papers will live with one goal in
mind and that is to prove the truth. There is no way, in my
experience, that all (or most of) the news outlets in the nation
lie about the same one time. Report the same thing, sure? But not
after much source vetting do they all publish the same thing in
every outlet.
Their
lies are almost always 100% suicidal: they will never write for a
paper/ media institution again if they are found, and they will die
of hunger – quite plainly.
More
than any other profession I have ever been exposed to, journalists
keep each other accountable. They have this incredible pride in
what they do that they do not allow doubt to seep into their
business, at any cost: they know that if they lie, their peers, and
their competitors will prove them wrong and all will be lost –
their credibility is much more important to them than any one story
in all its sensationalism.
I should mention here that I am
speaking of journalists who represent legit sources, your Posts,
Times, your NPR come
to mind but are just a couple, of course – there are thousands
out there. I am not referring to your tabloids and scandal
reporting, which I hardly would call “journalism”.
Journalists,
unlike politicians, do not have the power, therefore there is
nothing to abuse. They cannot sway the masses in one way or another.
Sure, they can try, but you won't get 100 news institutions swaying
in the same direction. There is competition, point of view,
difference of opinion (which is the foundation of the news
landscape, really) that news institutions thrive on and need for
their mere survival. Tyrannical, one-opinion minded politicians need
uniformity and conformity. Diversity is chaos to them, and they want
it put out, for fear of undermining them.
Another
thing I see very clearly in our current political system: the need
of the main leader to be surrounded by either family, or people
stupider or less prepared (Gosh, is it even possible anymore?!) than
themselves. This is, of course, also done in an effort to make them
look like the only authority and supreme source of knowledge. This
is typical, my friends, of tyranny. Mind my words: textbook!
In
the many years I spent at a daily newspaper, I have learned that
there is one thing that moves a true journalist: the chase for the
true story, the meaning of it, the history of it, and getting all
those facts on paper. They skip meals, they work crazy hours, they
drive distances on their (very puny) salary to get to the true
meaning of a story. It is probably childish and silly to say this,
but I am going to say it: they don't want to manipulate, they just
want people to know the real story. I don't even think they care
whether anyone agrees with them or not. Getting the story is their
prerogative, and theirs alone. Writing, in any form, is a pretty
solitary business, and so is chasing that story for them. There is a
pride in that, a true sense of accomplishment that they're after. And
most of them do it with passion and grace. I am yet to find the work
ethics and dedication in a work place like the ones I knew in the
newspaper business!
From
knowing what I know about politics, these are foreign concepts to
people in the leadership of this country, or any other, really.
Before you slap me for my puerile credulity, I will tell you that no,
I don't believe all reporters tell the truth. But I will say that
most of them do, for the reasons I briefly shared above, and possibly
a lot more. I will also know, deep down in my heart, that politicians
will lie to just about anyone, about just about anything to save
their rung on their ladder.
Surviving
for the journalist equates with the truth. For the politician,
survival is keeping in power, however you can hold on to it. This is
why you see politicians not conceding races right away:
because they think there is always a way they could have won that
power.
After
our elections, I have thought we could not lower ourselves in a
deeper darkness and mire. But I was wrong, for the true walk through
the darkness can only now begin: us turning a blind eye, not staying
vigilant, not demanding our press to stay free and open and yes,
controversial and competitive, is what is going to slip us surely
into the deep and muddy and empire of darkness which will ultimately
threaten our very being.
The
last thing we need is one person to tell us how it is, and us not to
interpret and weigh in on our decisions and options. One person to
offer us one pill of knowledge and us run with it, without questions
and doubts. Sure, thinking is hard. But trust me: falling asleep and
waking up with someone else's brain in your head is much, much harder
to stomach!
I
do think that one line from The Post summarizes the whole
movie, the events that it depicts quite beautifully and the lesson
those events drive home. I also think that this one line carries a
much heavier message about why it is still important to trust the
written word, and to value the right to public opinion, and why it is
still and will always be important in a true democracy to do
everything we can to preserve the right to free speech. That line is,
in paraphrase: “Journalism is the first rough draft of history.”
If we don't know our history, we're doomed to repeat it. The good but
especially the bad of it. We owe it to our children to help that, if
we can. And we can. We may not want to (it's
tough work, I get it), but we certainly can.
