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In these pages you will find one truth that has not changed in the twenty-first century nor in any other—values matter—and it is up to each of us, as individuals, to own that truth.
Journalism is a quest to open minds, not close them.
That level of hubris and arrogance has got us in the mess that we’re in right now. And we’re in a mess. But if we subvert the best things that we’re about, in the name of protecting our freedoms, if we remove them, then, who are we becoming? The American idea is a beautiful idea. It needs to be preserved, served, protected and sung out. Sung out!
When America goes to war, all of America must go. Wartime is when we need our collective judgment. The way “we all” go to war is through independent reporting. This chapter is entitled “Duty” because, in a democracy, war demands each of us to do his or her part. Reporters have the duty to go to war. The government and military have the duty to support them. The public has a duty to watch the reporting, understand the facts and debate the policy.
It is precisely when the nation’s temper turns to war that journalism must pursue the countervailing questions. Those stories and their authors will be excoriated as unpatriotic. But the reverse is true. Providing reporting that might keep America out of a misguided war is the zenith of patriotism. War, above all things, is not an administration’s business—it is the people’s business. When journalism fails to question an administration, the administration fails to question itself.
Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.
There are many professions in which dedicated people put their lives on the line to serve the public: police officers, firefighters, the military—and journalism is another.
Mark Twain observed, “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.”
Would 2/5 marines have been under fire in Ramadi in pickup trucks if the marines had been called to duty from among the 99.5 percent? Would the public stand for men and women deployed to combat tours three, four, five and six times? Would the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have become the longest in our history if our troops had been randomly drafted? Would Iraq have happened at all?
We can repay their valor in battle with valor on the home front. This requires real effort to give our professional troops the same attention, care and scrutiny of policy as if they had left our own kitchen to go to war. It is noble to donate to wounded warrior charities, but it is patriotic to analyze and question the plans for war before our sons and daughters are sent to fight in the first place.
The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable.
