The Importance of the Free Press

I saw the new Steven Spielberg film The Post over the weekend and it was brilliant.  Might have been the best film I've seen in 2017.   My review of it will be available tomorrow morning here.  For those who aren't aware, it tells the story of The Post's involvement in the publication of the Pentagon Papers.

How many of you remember seeing this on the shelves of your local bookstore?

I don't remember when I bought my first copy at the B. Dalton Bookseller in the mall but I remember reading it.  It let me to other books.  A lot of them which I will list at the end of this blog.

The Post tells the story of how the Washington Post obtained their own copy of the papers from Daniel Ellsberg who had been a Marine serving in Vietnam prior to the compilation of the study officially known as United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense and what we now know as The Pentagon Papers.

The New York Times was first to publish excerpts from the study but the Nixon Administration quickly got an injunction to stop them from publishing more of the papers until the court could rule on a permanent injunction.  Fortunately for all of us, the United States Supreme Court, by a 6-3 majority that the government's claim of national security interests did not override the First Amendment restrictions on infringement of the free press.  Justice Hugo Black wrote the following in his concurring opinion:

"In the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell. In my view, far from deserving condemnation for their courageous reporting, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other newspapers should be commended for serving the purpose that the Founding Fathers saw so clearly. In revealing the workings of government that led to the Vietnam war, the newspapers nobly did precisely that which the Founders hoped and trusted they would do."

Which brings us to a photo I saw on Twitter.

The truth is that while we suspect Donald Trump of multiple violations of the Constitution and other laws, and many believe that he may have colluded with Russia to rig the election, none of these allegations have yet to be proven.  Nixon faced certain impeachment by Congress and had at most, 16 votes in the Senate in his favor, far short of what he would have needed to remain in office.  Dozens of people were convicted for involvement in the Watergate Scandal.  The investigation into Watergate also led to the conviction of 18 different U.S. Corporations for illegal campaign contributions to the 1972 Nixon reelection campaign.  At present, it is easily argued that Nixon IS the crook in that photo, in comparison.

But the jury (pun intended) is still out on the allegations against Trump.  Is he violating the Emoluments Clause?  Probably.  Is he lining his pockets by forcing the Secret Service to spend government funds at his resorts to protect him when he visits there excessively?  It seems so, just as he enriches himself at every other opportunity.  

However, he is attempting to create his own form of prior restraint against the free press, although he isn't using the justice system as Nixon attempted to do.  His labeling of any unfavorable coverage of him or his administration as "fake news" is an attempt at a form of prior restraint.  So is his refusal to hold solo press conferences.  

RANKING PRESIDENTS BY SOLO PRESS CONFERENCES HELD IN FIRST YEAR

Donald Trump - 1

Gerald Ford - 4 (he was only in office from August through December his 1st year in office)

Richard Nixon - 6

Ronald Reagan - 6

Bill Clinton - 11

Jimmy Carter - 22

George H. W. Bush - 27

He calls the media fake news (except for Fox News) while he tells more lies than any of his predecessors.  Politifact's record shows that Donald Trump's statements are:

True - 4%

Mostly true - 12%

Half true - 15%

Mostly false - 21%

False - 33%

Pants on Fire - 15%

But as long as we support the media that is trying their best to report the facts and not the lies being told by Donald Trump, we have hope.

Meanwhile, I promised you a list of books.  Yes, I read a lot of them on this topic.  There were no history courses on the Vietnam War when I was in school.

A Bright Shining Lie by the same Neil Sheehan listed on that cover above

Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg

The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence by Victor Marchetti and John D. Marks

We Were Soldiers Once and Young by Lt. General Harold Moore and Joseph Galloway
Chickenhawk by Robert Mason
The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam
Street Without Joy by Bernard Fall (based on the recommendation of General Colin Powell in his autobiography)
The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford
Born On the Fourth of July by Ron Kovic
Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills by Charles Henderson
The Killing Zone by Frederick Downs
Aftermath: A Soldiers Return from Vietnam
The Green Berets by Robin Moore
The Only War We Had by Michael Lee Lanning
Vietnam 1969-70 - A Company Commander's Journal by Michael Lee Lanning
Inside the LRRPs: Rangers in Vietnam by Michael Lee Lanning
Force Recon Diary, 1969 by Bruce Norton
Force Recon Diary, 1970 by Bruce Norton
SOG: The Secret Wars of America's Commandos in Vietnam by John Plaster
Fortunate Son by Lewis B. Puller, Jr.
One Shot - One Kill by Charles W. Sasser
Charlie Rangers by Don Ericson and John Rotundo

I've tried to eliminate the even larger number of Vietnam novels I've read, as well as autobiographies like those of Colin Powell and H. Norman Schwarzkopf, which do detail their experiences during Vietnam but that isn't the primary focus of those books.