News happens quickly in today’s America, but even in the age of the internet, newspapers are needed more than ever.
The shocking assassination of right-wing organizer Charlie Kirk came at a time when news media and freedom of speech were already under attack by President Donald Trump’s increasingly authoritarian regime. Now MAGA has a martyr in Kirk, whose death is already being used by Trump and his allies as an excuse to ramp up an assault against the First Amendment’s call for freedoms of the press, speech, religion and peaceful assembly.
Next year the United States marks 250 years since its birth in 1776. Newspapers were important then, and they are important now. Patriot and President Thomas Jefferson himself said that he would rather have newspapers without a government than a government without newspapers. Though he often had conflicts with the press, Jefferson recognized the importance of dissenting voices and scrutiny of government that newspapers provide for Americans.
Newspapers are in trouble today. Many city and small-town papers have vanished, and many more are suffering declines in circulation and cuts in newsroom staff. Others have switched to online-only editions. At the end of this year, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will drop its print edition that the company has published since 1868. The paper’s executives cited economics and efficiency as the reasons for the move to a digital-only format, but many readers mourned the loss of a print edition newspaper with their morning coffee. Author Bill Bryson was right when he said, “A world without newspapers or a world where newspapers are purely electronic and you read them on a screen is not a very appealing world.”
National Newspaper Week began 85 years ago, in 1940, as a week-long promotion of the importance of newspapers. This year’s observance runs from Oct. 5–11. National Newspaper Week calls for Americans to support print media by subscribing, donating, submitting stories or letters, encouraging journalists and educating young people about the importance of our imperiled freedom of the press. The theme of this year’s observance is “Embracing Local Journalism for a Better Future.”
Banned Books Week events will also take place nationwide on Oct. 5–11. Banned Books Week began in 1982 in response to censorship attempts against libraries, bookstores and schools. Led by the American Library Association and the Banned Books Week Coalition, the observance continues today. The theme for this year’s Banned Books Week is a nod to the frightening novel 1984 by George Orwell: “Censorship Is So 1984. Read For Your Rights.”
Rights are under attack in America today, but an informed citizenry is an army against tyranny. In the wake of Kirk’s killing, Trump and his cronies are using the crime as another excuse to crack down on their opponents in journalism, entertainment and politics. Late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel was correct when he said that Trump and his MAGA crowd are “doing everything they can to score political points” from the assassination. After his remarks, ABC took Kimmel off the air, but he was reinstated after a groundswell of protest from viewers and politicians—including conservative Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. Former TV host David Letterman weighed in on the controversy, saying, “You can’t go around firing somebody because you’re fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian, a criminal administration in the Oval Office.”
Trump vows vengeance against his critics in media, in politics, in academia and in the streets of America. He should consider the words of another Republican, President Theodore Roosevelt, who said, “To announce that there must be no criticism of the president… is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
In the 1960s the Smothers Brothers comedy duo angered many television viewers by opposing the Vietnam War. President Lyndon Johnson was often the target of their topical humor, but LBJ showed class then, which Donald Trump lacks today, by writing the brothers a letter saying, “It is part of the price of leadership of this great and free nation to be the target of clever satirists… May we never grow so somber or self-important that we fail to appreciate the humor in our lives.”
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