EDITORIAL: Countries, conventions need free press

Posted: 1/18/08

EDITORIAL:
Countries, conventions need free press

A friend forwarded an e-mail citing the “memoirs” of Vo Nguyen Giap, a general in North Vietnam during its war with the United States. The e-mail quotes Giap as saying: “Your media was definitely helping us. They were causing more disruption in America than we could in the battlefields.” It then makes a contemporary application: “The exact same slippery slope, sponsored by the U.S. media, is currently well under way. It exposes the enormous power of a biased media to cut out the heart and will of the American public. … Do not fear the enemy, for they can take only your life. Fear the media far more, for they will destroy your honor.”

The quote is bogus (debunked by websites snopes.com and about.com), but the e-mail illustrates a common perception—a free press is dangerous for freedom. Such thinking is broad-based—in society and among Baptists. How ironic that free people don’t seem to value one of the freedoms guaranteed in the First Amendment. Some considerations:

Even if you were to believe in this quote, a communist general isn’t exactly the most reliable commentator. We fought a war with his kind precisely because they deny freedom. And what do communists and other despots do upon seizing power? They take over the media, so that they control exactly what the people hear and read, what they believe they know, and, eventually, what they think. This is the polar opposite of democracy.

Still, some Americans reflexively complain about the media. They say they want Supreme Court justices to interpret law based exclusively upon what the Founding Fathers wrote in the Constitution. But these same people seem to think the Founding Fathers were out of their minds when they included freedom of speech and freedom of the press in the First Amendment. The Fathers knew what they were doing. And people today can’t have it both ways.

In fact, a free press is the grease that keeps the wheels of democracy turning—in a country, in a convention. Sure, it’s messy. Of course, some journalists are incompetent, and some good ones make mistakes. But this happens in every endeavor. Some pilots show up intoxicated and others flip the wrong switches, some doctors operate on the wrong patients, some baggage handlers put bags on the wrong carts, some preachers sleep with women they counsel.

Journalists I know take their journalistic freedom seriously. When I cover an event or approach a powerful person and ask for information he or she would prefer to keep private, I don’t go on behalf of myself. I represent all the Baptists who depend upon me to tell them the truth. I don’t demand freedom because I want to do whatever I want; I demand freedom because the people to whom I report have a right to know. And even when that knowledge is messy or uncomfortable, knowing it helps us to face our challenges, make better decisions and improve our life together.

Ironically, the “liberal media” is much more potent in imagination than reality. The owners of the major media are some of the wealthiest corporations in America. It often appears they’re making most of their decisions based upon what’s good for their bottom line, not the public trust. Likewise, as editor of a news organization owned by a large convention, I often worry about whether I will make decisions to please the “corporation,” because that is the easiest path. Our assignment, unquestionably more difficult, is to represent pew-sitting Baptists who have a right to know about all the details of their denomination.

So, a free press, like a democracy, sometimes is messy. Sometimes it makes us uncomfortable. Sometimes it disturbs and disgusts us. Sometimes, of course, the media make mistakes. But I’ll take that risk. We’re far better off with a free press—in a country, in a convention—because ultimately, the people will know the truth. Truth is power.