The Demise of the Free Press; Its Threat to Our Democracy

At the very foundation of our representative democracy is a free press.  It was deemed so important; it was protected by way of our constitution’s first amendment.  This amendment was written to ensure that all Americans have unfettered access to trustworthy news.

Congress shall make no law…, abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press….

Revolutionary War Newspapers

Sometimes referred to as the Fourth Estate, a free press, while not a direct part of the political system, represents a “fourth power” if you will, to balance our legislative, executive and judicial branches of government.  Since ours is a government “of the people,” a free press is essential to providing critical information to the people.

Common Sense by Thomas Paine

At the very beginnings of our democracy, the publication of newspapers, pamphlets, and books by a free press, were pivotal in galvanizing this nation into the actions that resulted in its creation.  From the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the U.S. Constitution in 1787, the free press has made its pronouncements and informed the people.  In the ensuing 240 plus years, this free press has grown and morphed into the juggernaut that it is.  Technology has expanded the impact of the printing press and has supplemented it with radio, television, and the Internet.  This expansion has not been without its challenges however and we must be ever vigilant in assuring that it remains free.

In my home town of Miami, I grew up at a time when the city supported two major newspapers; the morning edition Miami Herald and the evening edition Miami News.  I actually delivered the latter tabloid by bicycle in the late 50’s.  Eventually the Miami News closed its doors in 1988, after suffering annual financial deficits in the millions of dollars.  The Miami Herald is still published as a daily newspaper but there are indications that it too is now in dire straits.  Yes, the Miami Herald has been in continuous publication since 1903, and has won 22 Pulitzer Prizes, yet it is floundering.  Signs of its suffering are seen in the diminished size of current editions along with a tremendous reduction in the quality of its content.  While they seem to maintain an accuracy in their reporting, spelling errors and poor grammar are now commonplace.  Over half the weight of the paper is advertising.

Miami Herald Building
Now Sold to an Investment Group, Possible Casino Site?

It is sad to see the decline of the printed newspaper but, with all the varying sources of information today, it is no wonder that our “free press” will at some point in the very near future, no longer use presses or paper.  We can only hope that one of the remaining information conduits will pick up the mantle in a manner fitting the integrity once provided by our vaunted newspapers.

Maintaining the balance of power in our three main branches of government is a daunting task.  Without a free press our democracy will almost certainly shift further toward the Oligarchy that many fear is already a fait accompli.  A free press and a free exchange of ideas will be essential if we are to reverse this trend.  It is apparent to some that the current cries of nationalism with its underpinnings in xenophobia are an attempt to further steer this country toward one governed by the “rule of the few.”  The shift of power from “the people” to those individuals with personal wealth, family ties, or corporate wealth is already happening. 

One of the ways this is happening is the three-pronged attack on our free press.  First, the press is vilified by those seeking to negate its influence.  Cries of “Fake News” come easily from our current president and his minions in a continuing attack of our free press.  The second prong of the attack is through ownership and direct control of the press so that it is no longer “free” but merely an extension of the thoughts and ideas of the owner.  The third prong of the attack is through the willful and wanton dissemination of false information so that it becomes extremely difficult to separate fact from fiction.  I’m sure most of us can think of several examples of each of these attack fronts on our free press.

The media watchdog group, Reporters Without Borders has just published its 2018 World Press Freedom Index, and the US came in at number 45.  Yes, the United States, that touts free speech and freedom of the press as part of its very foundation, now ranks behind countries like Estonia, Surinam, Latvia, Namibia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Taiwan, South Korea, Chile, and Romania.  We slipped two slots from last year reportedly because of President Trump's incendiary anti-press rhetoric and his desire to limit media access.  His antagonism against journalists in this country and abroad is referred to as the "Trump effect."  They describe President Trump as a "media-bashing enthusiast."

While the quote above looks like something Jefferson might have said,
please note that he never wrote/said those words.  I include it here because
someone should say it .  It was easy to repudiate the credit using the wonderful
Thomas Jefferson Foundation site. *

I'm sure there is a cave painting somewhere depicting that the artist killed three antelopes that day when he really only brought home one rabbit and a few berries.  Thus began "Fake News."  Braggadocio, pomposity, bluster, chutzpah, call it what you will, it is all a LIE.  We should not tolerate it from our politicians or our news sources.  Lies cut in all directions.

The Beginning of Fake News

While most of the newspapers of our historic past maintained high levels of integrity and vigilantly pursued the truth, many of our more recent information conduits have had a less than stellar record of accomplishment in the area of accurate and truthful reporting of the facts.  Most of us know the bias shown by certain cable news outlets.  We have FOX News on the left and MSNBC on the right.  CNN might be seen as center-left.  Each of these news outlets has individual shows or personalities with varying degrees of inclination left or right of center and some of these have regularly delved into the realm of pure fantasy.

When we look toward the Internet, we find a veritable Wild West mentality where separating fact from fiction requires effort.  The fact that this same Internet provides all of the tools that make it relatively easy to validate most information, does not belie the fact that most individuals aren’t willing or motivated to make that effort.  Validation of information does require motivation to find the real truth and not just another accomodation of a desired opinion.

It is perhaps fitting here to provide a quote from none other than Edgar Allan Poe and an excerpt from his 1845 short story “The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether.”  This passage is spoken by the head of a private hospital for the mentally ill.

 “You are young yet, my friend,” replied my host, “but the time will arrive when you will learn to judge for yourself of what is going on in the world, without trusting to the gossip of others.”  “Believe nothing you hear, and only one-half that you see.”

Edgar Allan Poe

This passage is even more fitting when you know that, in this hospital for the mentally ill, a recent rebellion by the patients has resulted in the incarceration of the staff, and that the inmates are now running the asylum.  Given the current occupant of the White House, I find the analogy quite fitting if not eerily accurate.

While we, with good reason in the past, trusted newspapers and major news sources to provide us with fair and accurate reports, our trust has been squandered in the name of corporate profits and a thirst for power.  The old adage to trust but verify could be updated to verify, verify, and verify again, before you trust anything.  It is a sad state of affairs but, in our modern information society, the manipulation of information has significant political, economic, and societal consequences.

My recommendations would be to:

• ·        Gather your information from multiple sources.
• ·        Watch/read news sources that provide opinions differing from your own
• ·        Use common sense, if it sounds outrageous, it quite possibly is false, so verify
• ·        Don’t forward or repeat something you have not validated as fact
• ·        Re-read the advice above from Edgar Allan Poe

_________________________________

* I'll leave you with an actual Thomas Jefferson quote.  This is taken from a November 4, 1823 letter to Lafayette.

"....but the only security of all is in a free press. the force of public opinion cannot be resisted, when permitted freely to be expressed. the agitation it produces must be submitted to. it is necessary to keep the waters pure."

Privatization is Not the Solution for Bad Government

We have heard too often that our schools would be more effective and our prisons could be run more efficiently if they were each turned over to private for-profit corporations.  Both of these solutions are fiscally and morally corrupt.  Privatization is sought as a solution when either the government has failed in its job or it is perceived that someone else could do a better job.

We are told that privatization is the answer to several problems in government.  Privatize our highway system, privatize our Veterans Administration, privatize Social Security, privatize Medicare, privatize our schools, privatize our prisons, the list goes on.  I have watched or read enough crime solving mysteries to know that the answer can most often be found by following the money.

After over 40 years of working in government at federal, state, and county levels, I have seen that government can be efficient when properly motivated.  I have also seen how inefficient government can be when there is no incentive to do better.  I have seen where, when privatization is set as a goal, the current government operation may be made to fail through insufficient funding, poor management, or just edicts from on high.

In the list above, only schools and prisons stand out where significant effort has already resulted in examples that can be studied.  Of these two, the privatization of prisons would seem to be the epitome of bad decision making.  The moral dilemma would seem to be most obvious, but it is often overlooked due to the nature of the abuse since it is directed mostly at criminals.  We inherently have little sympathy for those we have decided should be punished or kept away from society.

Prison reform is beyond the scope of this analysis.  I have previously put forth my opinions on the matter in my blog entry on Prison Reform.  Suffice it to say here that the US, with less than 5% of the world’s population, has 22% of the world prison population within its borders.  Our prison population has grown at rates exceeding 500% over the last 40 years, even as property crimes and violent crimes have dropped significantly.  The United States has the largest prison population in the world.  Even more than Russia and China.  Our “War on Drugs,” started in 1986, has increased our prison population from around 300,000 then, to over 2 million today.  If you read today’s headlines it is easy to see that this War on Drugs has not been effective and the situation is as bad, if not worse, than it has ever been.

2016 World Incarceration Rate per 100,000

We must however remember the “prime directive,” follow the money.  GEO Group (formerly a Florida based division of Wackenhut) and CoreCivic (formerly the Corrections Corporation of America or CCA), together represent 75% of the private prison operations in the US.  Both made large donations to the Trump campaign.  One conspicuous donation to Trump came a day after the Obama Justice Department decided to eliminate the use of these private prison facilities.  Now with Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration and his new insistence on mandatory minimum sentences, these two corporations stand to make back the political investments (called contributions after Citizens United) many fold.  In fact, private prison stock prices spiked with Trump’s election.  CCA jumped 34% and GEO Group went up by 18%.

A New Form of Slavery

Society’s purpose in incarceration has traditionally been for public protection, rehabilitation, and punishment for a crime.  With private prisons profiting from higher head counts, any prisoner rehabilitation and reduction in recidivism that might result from that effort, is counter-intuitive.  There was even the 2011 case of Judge Mark Ciavarella being convicted of a “cash for kids” scheme where private juvenile detention operators paid him for harsh sentences to maintain their populations.  He sentenced around 3,000 children; many with no crime committed, and took in $2.2 million in bribes. 

Judge Ciavarella (front left) Confronted by Mother (pointing finger) of One of His Victims
Her Son Committed Suicide, Ciavarella is Serving 28 Years in Prison

There was a second case that involved Judge Michael T. Conahan.  Judge Conahan, after becoming the Luzerne County Pennsylvania president judge, used his power to stop funding the county-run facility and then started sending all juvenile defendants to a new private for-profit facility.  He then set up a phony receivables scheme to defraud taxpayers and generate kickbacks from the owner.  He was later connected with Judge Ciavarella in the "kids for cash" scheme.

Michael Conahan, Former Judge
Serving 17.5 Years 

The GEO Group lost several contracts in Mississippi after bribery and kickback schemes resulted in criminal prosecution of public officials.  The GEO Group had at least $1 billion in contracts in Mississippi.  The federal investigation was titled Operation Mississippi Hustle.  Charges against GEO Group have ranged from wrongful death, slavery, bribery, deplorable facility conditions, and lack of medical attention.  Follow the money.  There is little incentive to operate clean and safe facilities, dedicated to rehabilitation when appropriate, where your sole motivation is profit. 

It is true that government-run facilities have also had their failures, but much of this can be attributed to lack of funding, lack of training, and lack of oversight.  Prisons should be efficiently run by federal, state, and local governments without a profit motive.  Private prisons have but one motive, PROFIT$.  They are driven to keep beds full.  With crime rates down, prison populations should be drastically reduced through reforms in our criminal justice systems.  Prison operations should always be a cost center in a government budget and never a profit center for private individuals and corporations.

Follow the Money

Schools are another matter, but with certain similarities.  As a business major, it is simple to see that the cost of educating a student should be easy to predict.  You have the cost of facilities, materials, and staff, and a common objective in both public and private environments.  The money comes from a single source, tax dollars.  The only obvious difference in the cost of this operation is the added expense of coming up with a profit in the case of private industry.  Since the costs of facilities, materials, and staff should be nearly identical in both scenarios, the profit needed in private operations has to come from a reduction in one of the other areas.

Just Like the Great Wall

Again, we need to follow the money.  Private schools would like to take the “cream” of the student population, educate them, and make a profit.  Public schools, stuck with whatever remains, would be forced to operate with diminished resources and compete on a not-now-even playing field.  It would be costly to have the two entities compete on a level field.  Both would have to serve in poor neighborhoods with limited parental support, language barriers, and all of the disadvantages the public schools face on a daily basis.  While I can see private schools vying for the so-called “nice neighborhoods,” their incentive to invest in those other areas of our communities that might bring difficulties, I find elusive. 

Perhaps supporters of school privatization could prove their mettle by selectively taking on the lower ranked schools and improving on their current outcomes.  In Florida, they pioneered the A-F grading system for schools.  Maybe a private school could come into a D or F rated school and bring its standing up by a grade or two.  They would need to do this of course, without spending more money than that which is available in the current budget for that school.  That could turn a few heads.  I won’t hold my breath on this one because, if history is any indication, the private schools are only interested in fast/easy money.

Family Donated over $200 Million to Republican Election Pacs
Rewarded with Appointment and Narrow Confirmation

Our current president is a product of the best education his wealthy parents could buy, and look how he spells things like honored, unprecedented, and my favorite heal, in the tweets below.  The last tweet even had "decades" in its singular form before he edited it.  He still missed the word heal, twice.  Why doesn't Betsy DeVos teach him how to activate spell check on his device so his tweets don't make him look like a twit.

Our schools need drastic improvements, but privatization is not the answer.  Education should be a priority for our nation and not just for those who can afford better schools.  Teachers need a living wage.  School facilities need maintenance.  Operational budgets need to include all the books and supplies needed to provide a fair education for all.  Federal funds need to supplement local tax dollars especially where poorer communities lack the tax base to provide adequately for their citizens.   A properly educated population is a benefit for everyone in the country.   Our current under-funded education system is a national problem.  Privatization is not the solution to that problem. 

Privatization, The Grand Scheme