Who better to defend the right of free speech than the Press? So, when a citizen criticizes a government action or a powerful corporation endangers the public, the citizen is often attacked by the offending party. And, he is vigorously defended by the news media. The Press balances the power that incumbent politicians have over individuals.
Forty years ago President Richard Nixon used the full force of the Justice Department against Daniel Elsberg, a defense analyst, for releasing the Pentagon Papers in protest to government action in Viet Nam war. The New York Times and other new sources defended Elsberg`s whistle blowing.
A careful reader of this editorial may have noticed the adjective "incumbent" before politician. We in the United States of America seldom need to go into the streets in protest. Whistle-blowers and an alert and righteous press can unseat entrenched incumbents! Richard Nixon resigned the Presidency of the United States in 1974, thanks to two reporters and the Washington Post. In 1777, just a year after the Declaration of Independence, ten sailors in the U.S. Revolutionary Navy protested torture of captured British sailors by their commanding officer. Their subsequent arrest was predictable. The protesting sailors were acquitted, no doubt in part due to their case being well publicized. Congress paid for their defense. Public awareness of the sailors` moral courage was important.
The Press can defend itself. A wise man said, "Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel." We defend whistle-blowers, because they have freedom of speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution, just as we do. | 