By Kathleen Sterling
Every journalist that’s gone to jail for not revealing a source did it for me.
Every foreign correspondent killed covering a war did it for me.
They stood up for what they believe in – and wrote about it – so I could do the same.
So I’m going to take on Trump and his latest move, banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House.
My papers focus on local news, not national, but this issue comes straight down the line to what I can and cannot write. What I can and cannot print. What you can and cannot read.
We print community news. But if your access to national news, to honest reporting, is limited to one man’s interpretation, then you are longer free.
And there should be no limitations. Our constitution protects freedom of speech – and freedom of the press.
Trump has put himself, once again, above the constitution to upend freedom of the press because he doesn’t like “what they write about me.” He has openly said about his attacks on journalists, “I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so that when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.”
This is not my United States. This is not my democracy.
This is one man subverting our constitution because of his own ego. It’s one man throwing a temper tantrum because he doesn’t like what someone said about him.
He banned the news organizations from what he called “the people’s house.” But the White House, the “people’s house,” is just that. It is a symbol of our democracy and a place for all Americans. It symbolizes that this country already threw off one king to become independent. It is the house of all people – not just one man who tries to use the power of his office for his own good, not the nation’s.
Trump throws out the term “fake news” for every story he doesn’t like. But he then turns around and posts a map on Truth Social showing Mexico, Canada, Greenland, Cuba, and other parts of the Caribbean as part of the United States. So far as I know they’re still independent.
He’s our president, but he’s certainly not a statesmen like some stellar chief executives before him. We have a president in office who says crude things about women, makes fun of the handicapped, attacks people based on their looks, and has engendered an atmosphere of hate in this country.
He calls journalists “sick.” But it’s sickening to watch what he is doing to subvert the constitution to his own end.
We’ve had presidents who’ve come up against journalists. Who have had negative things written about them. Who haven’t liked news coverage of their actions. But we haven’t had one who so blatantly abridges the rights of journalists. Your right to read more than one opinion. Your right to disagree with me about this editorial. Your right to write a response.
Trump called the press the “enemy of the American people.” But who is the real enemy? The journalists criticizing Trump? Or the one taking away the rights guaranteed to all of us in our constitution?
