The Ocracoke Observer cannot stand by and watch the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution be subject to repeated attacks.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
This amendment is the foundation of our freedoms in this country, and, fortunately, it has often thwarted some leaders who have wished to put the people under their thumb.
In simple terms, this amendment means: the government can’t tell you who, how or what to worship; the government can’t tell you that you cannot physically gather and protest; the government can’t tell you not to enumerate grievances; and the government can’t muzzle the press—be it newspapers, books or electronic media.
The right of the press to criticize (and investigate) leaders has been a hallmark of our free society since the Constitution was ratified in 1788.
The First Amendment doesn’t differentiate between speech types. People are free to spew vitriol (or “hate speech”), or all the nice things they want.
In the last several months, the federal government has openly silenced facts. It has threatened some news outlets because it didn’t like what they wrote or said.
The government has cowed law firms and educational and artistic institutions with threats because these entities may be saying things the administration didn’t like.
Well, too bad.
That’s been the way of our democracy—it’s OK to criticize or disagree. That’s what makes a free society, albeit with some guard rails: There’s freedom but not license to do whatever you want. For example, freedom of speech does not include child pornography, incitement with intent to commit harm, slander or libel.
But simply disagreeing with or publicly criticizing a government official is free speech and is protected under the First Amendment.
Journalism has been a feisty institution in this country, beginning with small publishers and pamphleteers in the colonial era and growing into profitable powerhouses of advocacy, muckraking and sensationalism, along with serious and objective news gathering.
It has had its share of bad actors.
“Simply disagreeing with or criticizing publicly a government official is free speech and is protected under the First Amendment.”
Unlike teachers, medical providers or lawyers, the press doesn’t need a license to practice, but many practicing journalists have taken a journalism course or two and, we hope, were taught some basic tenets.
The three biggest tenets in journalism are to be objective: “not influenced by personal feelings, interpretations, or prejudice; based on facts; unbiased”; impartiality: The quality of not being biased or prejudiced; and fairness: free from bias or injustice; evenhandedness.”
Sometimes these traits are hard to uphold, but many newspapers do strive to tell all sides of the story.
It also means separating news from opinion—with separate pages for opinions, be they editorials, op-eds or letters to the editor.
But the cacophony of social media has washed like a tsunami over society, often drowning out the “legacy” media, which has had its work cut out for it.
Social media has become a place where everyone can yell at each other without accountability. We’ve got to stop yelling at each other and saying the other side is “bad” if they disagree.
How we do that is the big question.
Vigorous discourse, sometimes leavened by compromise, has been a guiding principle of our society, and it doesn’t mean “hating” each other (and killing each other) for different opinions.
The Observer strives to be impartial and to show at least two sides to every news story.
The Center for Integrity in News Reporting, a new nonprofit based in Little Rock, Arkansas, was recently created to address the public’s declining trust in news reporting.
We learned of this group when we attended the North Carolina Press Association annual conference Sept. 19 in Cary.
The U.S. military newspaper, “The Stars & Stripes,” is the first newspaper to adopt and publish a core values statement.
We would like to join that list with our core values, to wit:
“Credibility is the greatest asset of any news medium, and impartiality is its greatest source of credibility.
“Impartiality means reporting and editing the news honestly, fairly and objectively without personal opinion or bias.
“Journalism’s core mission requires accurately reporting facts and putting them in context. The Ocracoke Observer maintains a firewall between news reporting and opinion. We clearly mark our editorials and publish a balanced selection of contributing viewpoints.”