Perhaps seeing enough of the battling between the press, the President, and Congress, NAB CEO Gordon Smith has voiced his opinion about a free press in an op-ed piece in Broadcasting & Cable. Smith, a former Senator from Oregon, has a unique perspective on the topic, having been frustrated by the media when in public life. Witnessing the recent battles, Smith says “allegations of bias fly in every direction.”
Smith says the essence of our democratic experiment is this: “It no more matters what the president thinks is news than what other Americans think. When the press is being attacked, its value is being affirmed. And so too are the underlying values of America.”
Smith then goes on to praise the broadcasters he represents. “As head of the National Association of Broadcasters, I’ve witnessed firsthand the remarkable work of local radio and TV journalists and their broadcast network colleagues dedicated to fact-based news reporting. Among these journalists are fierce patriots who embed with U.S. troops abroad. They risk their lives reporting on wildfires, hurricanes, and tornadoes. They’ve saved the lives of hundreds of children with Amber Alerts and coverage of the opioid crisis. Broadcast groups have doubled down on credible investigative journalism that exposes fraud and corruption at the local, national, and international level. I may not agree with every perspective or story, but my consent is not required for free voices to speak out.”
Smith writes that America’s founding fathers grudgingly accepted withering press criticism and sustained journalism attacks. “They did so because they understood that government efforts to delegitimize the role of the journalist constituted an attack on democracy itself. For more than two centuries, little has changed in the adversarial relationship between reporters and politicians in power. The enduring constant has been the First Amendment, and our forefathers’ fundamental embrace of free-speech principles that preserve America as the last best hope on Earth.”
Read the entire op-ed HERE.
