A nation’s democracy lives or dies in tandem with the freedom of its press to hold elected officials accountable for their virtues and their vices. Long held as the fourth pillar of democracy, a free and robust media is crucial to the survival of an equally free and robust republic, one in which independent journalists are allowed to serve as voters’ eyes and ears.
Yet even as the president ramps up warnings of election fraud, last week he inexplicably tore apart the very media watchdogs that could ensure future voters have no such qualms.
Trump’s recent banishment of three major news agencies from the White House is a critical crack in the foundations of our democracy. It was a maneuver perfected by the Kremlin when it, too, wanted to act with impunity. It has since become a favorite recipe of dictators, one that will poison our nation if allowed to stew.
“Twentieth-century dictators — notably Stalin, Hitler, and Mao — had all denounced their critics, especially the press, as ‘enemies of the people,’” wrote Harvard Professor Emeritus Marvin Kalb. “Their goal was to delegitimize the work of the press as ‘fake news’ and create confusion in the public mind about what’s real and what ...