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Mostly Cloudy When the press is under assault, so is the Constitution
An alarming trend is taking place that is undermining one of the pre-eminent tenets of our U.S. Constitution — freedom of the press. Faced with the prospect of bad publicity, people in positions of authority, in some cases with a particularly conservative political ideology, are using the legal system as a weapon in a war with an institution once seen as a bedrock of democracy and now perceived as an enemy.
In Wisconsin, a small-town newspaper is on the verge of bankruptcy due to the expense of defending itself in a defamation suit filed by a now Republican state senator. As detailed in a New York Times story in 2021, the Wausau Pilot & Review published an article reporting that a prominent businessman, Cory Tomczyk, referred to a 13-year-old boy as a “fag” at a public hearing. Tomczyk subsequently sued the paper for defamation, but the case was dismissed in April of this year because he failed to meet the legal standard to establish a case. Tomczyk has appealed, resulting in more legal fees for the Pilot & Review. The Times reports that the paper’s publisher has no idea how she can afford to both fight both the legal case and pay her staff of four.
Meanwhile, in Kansas, one can’t help but see the link between the raid of a small newspaper’s offices and its investigation of the local police chief. As reported on NPR, on Aug. 11, the Marion Police Department confiscated computers, cellphones and a range of other material at the offices of the Marion County Record. While it had not published any stories, the Record had been looking into allegations of misconduct against the local police chief. The paper’s publisher told the Kansas Reflector that the message from police and the local political establishment was clear: “Mind your own business or we’re going to step on you.”
As in Wisconsin, the Kansas case is getting national attention. According to The Intercept, the raid was strongly condemned in a letter from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to the Marion County Chief of Police, which was signed by 36 news media and press freedom organizations. The letter states, “Newsroom searches and seizures are among the most intrusive actions law enforcement can take with respect to the free press, and the most potentially suppressive of free speech by the press and the public.”
This accounting of recent instances of press intimidation, by the Philadelphia Inquirer, makes clear that those above are by no means alone:
• A government official in Las Vegas charged last year with murdering an investigative reporter who wrote stories about his bullying tactics of subordinates and his relationship with an employee.
• The homes of two journalists in New Hampshire vandalized last year after stories detailed sexual assault allegations against the operator of an addiction treatment center.
• Reporters threatened and harassed for covering the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
• Some local governments have stopped paying to print public notices in newspapers because of unfavorable coverage.
• Elon Musk banned several reporters from the X social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, who aggressively covered his company.
And then, of course, there is arguably the ringleader in this war against responsible journalism, former President Donald Trump, who has accused the press of being an “enemy of the people,” according to The New York Times. The Times also reports that Trump has filed numerous unsuccessful defamation lawsuits against news organizations, the latest of which, a $475 million whopper against CNN, was thrown out by a federal judge for lack of merit.
This crisis has special significance for us Long Islanders. Marie Colvin was an award-winning hero journalist who lost her life covering war atrocities in Syria. She grew up in East Norwich. Marie used to say, “Be passionate, and be involved in what you believe in, and do it as thoughtfully and honestly as you can. . . . Our mission is to speak truth to power.”
We need to stand up and fight for independent journalism. Let us all speak ‘truth to power”!
Charles Lavine represents the 13th Assembly District.
