photo by: Creators Syndicate

Keith Raffel

In addition to guaranteeing freedom of speech and religion, the First Amendment prohibits government action “abridging freedom… of the press.”

As President Ronald Reagan declared, “There is no more essential ingredient than a free, strong, and independent press to our continued success in what the Founding Fathers called our ‘noble experiment’ in self-government.”

During the glory days of the American press, newspapers stood up against government pressure. In 1972, Attorney General John Mitchell heard what The Washington Post was going to publish about the Nixon administration’s role in the Watergate scandal. He vowed that Post publisher Katharine Graham “is gonna get her (breast) caught in a big fat wringer if that’s published.” The paper published, nonetheless.

When the founder of Amazon and its largest shareholder Jeff Bezos bought the Post in 2013, he promised, “While I hope no one ever threatens to put one of my body parts through a wringer, if they do, thanks to Mrs. Graham’s example, I’ll be ready.”

That hifalutin rhetoric came before Trump interfered with a $10 billion contract that Amazon Web Services was seeking with the Defense Department. In a 2019 lawsuit, Amazon accused Trump of seeking to select a competitor in order to hurt Bezos, “his perceived political enemy” because of his ownership of the paper.

Apparently, Bezos learned his lesson. Just before the election, he killed a Post editorial endorsing Trump’s opponent for the presidency, Kamala Harris. Two weeks before Trump took office, the paper refused to run a political cartoon by Pulitzer Prize winner Ann Telnaes showing Bezos on bended knee before Trump. A month after the inauguration, Bezos announced: “We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. … viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”

Marty Baron, the former editor of the Post, explained, “I don’t think that (Bezos) wants an editorial page that’s regularly going after Donald Trump” because of the fear “that Trump would take vengeance on his perceived political enemies.”

I doubt any part of Bezos’ anatomy was put through a wringer as he moved the Post from editorial independence to presidential appeasement. Bezos would not let his ownership of the newspaper harm the source of his own wealth and the livelihood of those who work for the company. When the Post was owned by the Graham family, they treated it as a public trust. For Bezos, it’s a side hustle.

Bezos, Amazon and the Post are not alone here. Other news organizations and their owners are yielding to Trump:

The Los Angeles Times killed an endorsement of Harris last fall, which resulted in the resignation of its editor. The paper’s owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong, with an estimated net worth of $10.2 billion, has business interests in pharmaceuticals and biotech that require federal approvals.

Bill Owens, the executive producer of CBS’ 60 Minutes newsmagazine recently resigned, saying he was no longer allowed to “make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes.” The controlling shareholder of Paramount, CBS’ parent, is seeking government approval for the sale of the company.

Trump has also sued Paramount for $20 billion for the way a 60 Minutes interview with Harris was edited. To the chagrin of CBS News employees, recent reports indicate Paramount is negotiating a payment with Trump despite the baseless lawsuit.

In the early 19th century, British statesman George Canning declared, “I called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old.” Relying on the new world of online media to compensate for the concessions of old media is a long shot. In the wake of Trump’s 2020 victory, Meta, the parent of Facebook which has over three billion users, announced it would stop fact-checking posts even though, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted, “We’re going to catch less bad stuff.” Twitter, now known as X, was bought for $44 billion in 2022 by Elon Musk, Trump’s largest campaign contributor. In October, Giulio Corsi, a researcher at the University of Cambridge, told NBC News, “We do have a lot of evidence to suspect that X is turning more and more far-right by the day.”

Trump himself shows no deference to the First Amendment. During last year’s campaign, he called the press “corrupt” and promised to “straighten out our press.” He suggested that criticism of federal judge Aileen Cannon for her pro-Trump rulings “should be illegal.” As president, he threatened to sue the media for “defamatory fiction” and “blatant dishonesty.” He continued, “Who knows, maybe we will create some nice new law!!!.”

Back in the glory days of the American press, leading news sources were often family-owned. As noted, Graham was willing to risk it all for journalistic integrity. The Carters who owned the Delta Democrat Times and the Binghams who owned the Louisville Courier-Journal took unpopular stands in favor of civil rights. The LA Times owned by the Chandlers won a Pulitzer for its reporting on the Watts riots. The coverage of the Vietnam War by CBS News, controlled by the Paley family, helped turn the country against the Nixon administration.

All these traditional news organizations have been sold by the one-time controlling families and have become small parts of larger corporations.

Alas, the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of the press is an empty promise if there is no independent press to exercise that freedom.

The masthead of The Washington Post’s still says, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” If that’s the case, American democracy is gasping for breath. It’s five minutes before sundown.

— Keith Raffel is a syndicated columnist with Creators.