We Must Save the Journalists
(Photo by Mido Makasardi on Pexels)
Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech. ~ Benjamin Franklin
Call it oligarchy, call it authoritarianism, call it the Rise and Fall of America, but what has happened in a matter of days is a trashing of our democracy and our Constitution and the appropriating of our country by immoral scoundrels. It is painful to watch. But watch it we must, if we're going to save our country.
One of the primary foundations of our democracy is freedom of the press. And one of our essential sources of information about our country and its government has been media, especially the foremost institutions of journalism, which have been the likes of The Washington Post, The New York Times, and a handful of other grand old media outlets. Formerly existing primarily as paper newspapers, our mainstream media now exists online and in streaming channels.
Unfortunately, almost all the formerly great journalistic outlets have quickly and publicly deteriorated into mouthpieces for authoritarian propaganda; this will only get worse in the next four years. I feel saddest of all at watching the decline and demise of the formerly great Washington Post, winner of 68 Pulitzer Prizes in journalism and bastion of great journalism for decades. Now, under its owner Jeff Bezos, who has partnered himself with others in the anti-democracy Project 2025 alliance and inserted himself into the newspaper's editing process, the best journalists have fled the publication, and it now publishes dreck that would embarrass anyone with a minimum of journalistic sensibility or common sense. We can expect nothing from WaPo and other major digital newspapers but misinformation and lies going forward.
What to do? First, stop reading them! Seriously, once you know their integrity is compromised, reading them is a waste of your time because you'll have to question every word. And your clicks on their links entice their supporting advertisers.
Second, stop buying them! "Vote with your pocketbook" has long been my motto, and this is a great time to put it into practice. Every dollar you give to these organizations provides them more support for the destruction of our country and what it stands for. Do you want to pay for that?
Third, find other sources of journalism. This requires a change in thinking and a change in habits. Most of us grew up reaching for a mainstream newsletter, or clicking on the link of one, in order to read the news. Now we need to find and choose new sources.
My own choice for my daily news is a collection of Substack posts (Substack is so far untainted by corrupt CEOs, filtering or censoring) written by about fifteen journalists, reporters and historians I admire, many of whom were previously employed by the great newspapers of the past. They're top of the line. A few others are talented newcomers. Some report and shed light on the news, some are informational, and some provide opinion pieces. Every morning I open their posts (which come to me via email, although you can choose other options) in a browser tab. I also quickly peruse Substack's Home page for more pertinent information, plus a few websites whose news I mostly trust at present, such as The Guardian.
Then I use Microsoft Edge to organize the open tabs instantly into a group (Tab Actions button on top left --> Organize Tabs). The posts will remain in that tab group until I'm ready to read them, even if I close the browser. That's my routine. What will your routine be now?
And as a creative activist, because of the current dire threat to democracy in the US, my activist focus for the year 2025 will be journalism and freedom of the press.
Why? Because the one thing that will help us fight what is being done to our country is to know what is being done to our country. If all media has been co-opted, how will we know the truth? Answer: we won't.
Journalists have always been our watchdogs. Now that role is truly essential to our country's survival as a great democracy.
That's why authoritarian regimes immediately take control of the media. It's already happening (remember the quick settlement by ABC for simply saying a few words that were true but displeased Dear Leader?), and it will become much worse very quickly. Please do read these two links for specific information about what we can expect with regard to the media.
1) Is Project 2025 a Roadmap for Media Repression? - Kettering Foundation
2) What would Project 2025 do for (or to) journalism? - Nieman Journalism Lab
I'll be determining over the next couple of weeks exactly how I'll share my coverage of journalism in the coming months. Expect to see more about that in a new section I've added to the bottom of the Newsletter called Creative Activism. You'll also be seeing a new post about creative activism and easy ways to contribute very shortly.
Here's to democracy!
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Great piece, Elena. So relevant.