Earlier this week a few hundred newspapers and other news organizations around the country published editorials in response to President Donald Trump’s charged rhetoric against a free press and to advocate for what journalists do.
I’m not sure such a coordinated effort had much of an impact, especially given the state of the newspaper industry. As one national press observer wrote, this tactic played into Trump’s hands, and I tend to agree.
You don’t have to like Trump’s declaration that the press is “the enemy of the people”—it’s an outlandish, false assertion, like so much of what he says—to understand his objectives of inflaming his political base and pushing journalists back on their heels.
Ever since he first ran for president, Trump has engaged in press-bashing that’s truly alarming. While the news media has plenty of shortcomings, including getting much of its coverage of the last election dreadfully wrong, no president should speak like this.
However, I’m more concerned about what public officials do rather than what they say, as demonizing and unbecoming as Trump’s nonsense about “fake news” has been.
One of the papers that editorialized against Trump’s words this week is the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, which has been aggressively attacked by public officials for its reporting of a story of great local and national interest.
The Fort Lauderdale newspaper published details about the alleged gunman in the Parkland high school shootings that the school system there released unintentionally.
A local judge was incensed, not by the schools trying to hide vital public information, but by the newspaper, which she threatened to hold in contempt.
The Sun-Sentinel isn’t backing down, although the political and legal power being brought to bear against it is formidable.
Forget all the hot air coming from Washington, Trump as well as an often grandstanding national political press corps that continues to misunderstand what propelled him to the White House.
The Sun-Sentinel case illustrates to me that the real battles for a free press are being fought at the local level, where journalists are in increasingly shorter supply these days.
That’s because chains and hedge funds are scooping up what’s left of independent and locally owned papers, strip-mining them of whatever value is left in a dying business, and leaving their communities to fend for their own news and information needs.
Trump’s newsprint tariffs, reaching 30 percent, are taking a big toll as well, affecting even our local daily newspaper.
For those of us in local news, the retort to Trump shouldn’t be to him at all but to keep doing what we pledge for our communities. The news.
Dan Whisenhunt of Decaturish, who like me is a member of the Local Independent Online News (LION) Publishers, put it simply: Answer attacks on journalism with more journalism.
It’s not a new sentiment.
Kevin Riley, editor of the AJC, where I proudly worked for nearly 20 years, wrote that “We’re not engaged in a shouting match with the President. We are working on stories like these,” and then rattled off some of its recent reports.
In the year-plus since I launched East Cobb News, I’ve been grateful to connect with local citizens about critical issues facing our community.
Even when we don’t agree, as was the case with a previous commentary I published this week, hearing from engaged readers and citizens is essential for a free press and the community.
I’m encouraged to be in touch with these East Cobb citizens and taxpayers, regardless of their views, and especially regarding our heated budget process this summer, and continuing discussions on growth, county finances, schools and more.
There’s a lot going on here just in our corner of Cobb County, and I’m eager to continue to build this site and foster important community conversations.
I don’t intend to use East Cobb News as a soapbox like this very often. I want this to be your platform more than anything.
If you care deeply about what happens in East Cobb, don’t be bashful about it.
If you don’t agree with what’s published here, sound off. That’s what the comment section is for on every post.
If you don’t like what you seeing being done in your name as a taxpayer, parent, citizen or in any other capacity, let’s hear it. Let’s talk about it. Let’s get to the heart of the matter, through reporting and discussion.
I’ve seen good results along these lines in the early months of this site, and I look forward to hearing more from you in the months to come.
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Walton, ranked in the Top 10 in Class 7-A in several pre-season polls, plays a second consecutive game against a Gwinnett County team when it travels to Collins Hill next week.
