Our Right to Know by Geoff Carter « The Pen in Hand Blog

Attribution: Warren K. Leffler, U.S. News & World Report Magazine, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

By Geoff Carter

The American people are deeply indebted (more than we know) to the free press and the journalists who risk their lives to uncover corruption, expose criminality, and preserve the personal freedoms in our lives. Without their work, we never would have known about Watergate, watched the horrors of the Vietnam War spill into our living rooms, learned of the pedophilia in the Catholic Church, or read the Pentagon Papers. We never would have heard of My Lai, Iran Contra, or Jeffrey Epstein, and no one would have been brought to justice.

Over our two-hundred-and-fifty-year history, members of our free press have exposed criminality, immorality, and greed in every nook and cranny of our society—and they’ve kept us safe. They’ve uncovered unsafe practices in the meat-packing industry, corporate corruption in the railroad trusts, and exposed government corruption at every level—including the Teapot Scandal, the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and Watergate. Embedded journalists have risked their lives documenting the horrors of war from Nazi Germany, to Vietnam, to Iraq and to the Ukraine.

Edmund Burke once called the press the fourth estate—the fourth branch of government—and he was not understating the case. The free press is the fourth (and last) check on the powers of the legislative, judicial, and legislative branches of our democratic republic. It has become the last guardrail between us and autocracy. Journalists are our watchdogs, our search and rescue dogs, and—yes—our corpse dogs. They don’t rest until they find all the bodies.

We trust the free press because journalists are required to adhere to strict professional standards and to follow a strict and detailed code of ethics. Their mission is to seek the truth and report it, to minimize harm and show compassion for those affected by news stories, to act independently of those in power, and to be accountable and transparent to their readers. All professional journalists are bound by these rules.

Many newspapers and media outlets, like The New York Times, have their own separate and stricter codes of ethics. Those who gather, report, edit, and publish the news are professionals dedicated to reporting the truth with courage and integrity. Many, like photojournalist Brent Renaud, have lost their lives while reporting the truth.

According to a report by the United Nations, “journalism is fundamental for sustainable development, human rights protection and democratic consolidation, but remains a dangerous and too often deadly profession.” This report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s UNESCO Observatory of Killed Journalists also reports that more than 1,600 reporters have been killed since 1993. It’s a risky job.

It seems as if an American institution like the free press should be—at the very least—appreciated, yet as of late, the “mainstream media” has been ridiculed and reviled by those in power. Donald Trump has been calling the media “fake news” and “the enemy of the people” for years. According to the ACLU, he has said their coverage in “treasonous” and “criminal”, and has even shockingly called for the execution of some journalists.

This enmity is nothing new. President Richard Nixon was famous for his feuds with The Washington Post over The Pentagon Papers and then the Watergate coverup. Spiro Agnew made a career out of attacking TV news for being elitist liberals and maintained it was, “time that the networks were made more responsive to the views of the nation and more responsible to the people they serve” (The Conversation). Sound familiar?

Trump—along with everyone in Maga Land—is singing the same old song. In September of 2025, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth demanded that reporters at the Pentagon sign a “pledge” promising not to gather any material not authorized for release and that doing so would result in revocation of their press credentials. In addition, reporters would no longer have freedom to “roam the halls” of the Pentagon without an escort. According to an NPR Report, Secretary Hegseth maintained that these new restrictions were necessary to maintain national security.

This did not sit well with the working press. The New York Times, CNN, NPR, and even Fox News refused to sign. But that didn’t stop the Trump administration from attempting to muzzle the press. Just this week, the Pentagon had announced plans to “modernize” its newspaper The Stars and Stripes after accusing “the independent military newspaper of focusing on “woke distractions”’ (NPR Stars and Stripes).

Since the Iran War began, the administration’s attacks on the press have become even more hostile and vitriolic. Dissatisfied with how his war has been covered, Trump had his minion FCC Chair Brendan Carr issue this threat: “Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions — also known as fake news — have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up,” Carr wrote on X over the weekend. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their license if they do not” (Free Speech Center).

Secretary Carr, like many of Trump’s appointees, doesn’t seem to know his job. Apparently, he’s unaware that the FCC cannot pull the licenses of networks, only local stations.

More concerning to the free American press is the acquisition of media conglomerates by independent buyers—many of them Trump’s billionaire allies. Amazon CEO and billionaire Jeff Bezos, who has long tried to curry favor with Trump to further his business ventures, purchased The Washington Post in 2013. After some initial success, the paper floundered and Mr. Bezos has instituted widespread layoffs, cutting 350 of 800 journalists.

In the fall of 2024, shortly before election day, he informed the opinion editor that the paper would no longer be endorsing presidential candidates and that “the section… would stand “in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.” He added that “viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others” (The New York Times). So much for one of the shining lights of our free press.

Even more alarming has been the acquisition of Warner Brothers, Oracle, TikTok, CBS, CNN, and HBO Max by Larry Ellison’s Paramount Studios, creating a massive media complex including tech, media, and the movies (The New York Times).

According to a report by NPR, David Ellison, heir apparent to this media empire and a vocal Trump supporter, has already has made moves to appease administration demands such as airing only unedited interviews and to appoint executives skeptical of mainstream news reporting like Bari Weiss into key leadership positions at CBS and CNN. It is no coincidence that a CBS 60 Minutes segment critical of the president was suddenly pulled from airing and that The Steven Colbert Show, which is often critical of Trump, is being cancelled.

The free press has never gotten along with any presidential administration. They’re not supposed to; their job is to sniff out and report lies, budget discrepancies, indiscretions, backroom deals, criminal activity, and worse—to be our watchdogs. Government efforts to muzzle the press is a direct threat to our democracy. Verbal attacks and threats against journalists and new organizations are attacks on all of us.

We live in a time where everyone’s voice is equal. Whether it’s Senator Bernie Sanders or Barney down at the local bar, they both men’s opinions have equal volume and equal audience. Social media lets everybody speak at the same volume, even though these voices are not equal. Some are informed, some not. Some are experienced, some are not. When the uninformed voices prevail, we end up living through a January 6^th or a measles outbreak or all sorts of hate crimes.

Our professional journalists are dedicated to the truth and are trained to gather it, report it, and publish it. They put their lives on the line for the truth, but ordinary Americans can help, too. Through the advent of video technology, everyday citizens can now capture objective truth. We can act as citizen journalists by using our smartphones. The stalwart citizens who recorded the murders of Rene Good and Alex Pretti gave us the unvarnished truth—and video doesn’t lie.

It is our duty as American citizens to find the truth, record the truth, champion the truth, and fight for the truth.

We need to trust—and follow—our journalists and ourselves.