The title is a mouthful. It holds promise of interesting topics. In a blog, however, the promise is limited. Space for one; attention span for another. Perhaps attention span is the controller here. After all, most readers want a quick scan, not a poser that absorbs time in their busy day.
So, the scope of this post today is limited. The Press is a venerable institution much in decline today. Its mission is honorable but tattered. Too few dollars make teams of journalists sparse and unable to cover their news beats. Free Speech is another venerable institution, especially in America. It too, however, is much in decline. Pressure points serve to limit the ideas expressed. Who will be offended? Who will not? And so writers clip their prose so as not to offend.
Civility is a behavior of the past. Polite society set standards of social interaction and grace. Today those standards are in ruins. Tossed aside so my speech or yours can be heaped on someone else to cow their freedom of speech. “How dare you say that about…..?” “Damn you, you scoundrel for dissing me!” You get the point.
So, the Press exists but not in the abundance it once was. Freedom of the Press is much more limited these days as autocrats and political hooligans wage war on the ideas they do not agree with. Clearly that is a limitation of Freedom of Speech.
What is important to us? As Americans, free speech and freedom of the press are high on our scale of defenders of our way of life. If that is truly the case, then why are both these institutions in such obvious decay?
As the once managing editor of a local, independent newspaper, my view is seared in memory. We were not profitable, mostly unprofitable, and with an all-volunteer staff. It was a labor of love for all of us. We worked hard and heard positive things from our readers. However, no one wanted to pay for the newspaper, and advertising was scarce. Oh, businesses and organizations wanted access to our information channel and readers, but they simply would not pay for it. Social Media was free, don’t you know? So, we couldn’t raise ad revenues to pay our costs.
The paper folded after seven years. We existed on some ads, a lot of red ink and some gracious donations from contributors. And a lot of free time from writers and staff.
Today, I get most of my news from the internet. I don’t pay for the news sources, just the wi-fi connection. More and more primary news sources are asking for my subscriptions to read their articles. They give me four a month for free, but after that, I’m cut off. I’m about to reward my favorites with a subscription. That would be the Washington Post and the New York Times. I’m still thinking on this, but I do value a free press and know well the lesson that the press is not free; someone has to pay for it. Freedom of the Press is about gathering and sharing the facts. That still is operable. The operating costs, however, are not free and we must help pay for those.
Freedom of speech is alive and well but takes more courage these days than in the past. To win the right of free speech, however, many people – our ancestors – paid dearly with their lives to pay for such freedom. We owe it to ourselves and subsequent generations to support, fight for, and win freedom of speech in perpetuity.
Civility? That’s also up to each of us to be polite, respectful and hearing the voices and speech of those we probably don’t agree with. But who knows? We might just learn something that will make all the difference in the world!
September 6, 2019
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