Democracies Also Die in Silence.
Phuket Island, Thailand, October 26th, 2024.
Salaroche

Back on September 26, 2001, when Ari Fleischer, then-Press Secretary to George W. Bush, said at a press conference that “Americans need to watch what they say, watch what they do” (see here), he signaled the beginning of one of the darkest periods in the history of American journalism.

It was practically from that day on that hardly any American journalist dared to question the Bush Administration’s WMD hoax. They all just went along disseminating the official state propaganda quite obediently. A wakeup call came on April 29, 2006, when Stephen Colbert frontlined the White House Correspondent’s Dinner and repeatedly chastised the press corps as well as the GOP and the Bush Administration (see video here).

Consequently, many of us thought that the American press had learnt its lesson and would never again be willing to make the same mistake. But now it seems that we were wrong. First, on October 11, the owner of the LA Times, informed the Editorial Board that his Newspaper wouldn’t endorse any candidate in this presidential elections, which prompted Mariel Garza, the paper’s editorials editor to resign, subsequently provoking the departure of two more members of that editorial board.

Then, on October 25, the Washinton Post announced that they wouldn’t be making any endorsements either, thereby also prompting Robert Kagan, editor-at-large at the paper’s opinion sector, to resign. Just picture this: Two major American newspapers that don’t endorse any candidate in the most crucial presidential election of our lifetime. No official preference from their part between two candidates whose election to the presidency may have the most consequential impact on the future of the United States.

In refusing to endorse Kamala Harris, those two newspaper owners are basically suggesting that Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are on the same moral footing, which is a resounding slap in the face of their entire Editorial Boards, who had both written editorials endorsing Harris’ candidacy.

But above any speculation, the official silence those two newspaper owners have opted for has the stench of cowardice. It reeks of sheer fear of retribution should Donald Trump win the presidency again. “Democracies die in Darkness” is the Washington Post’s official motto. But Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of that newspaper, should be reminded that DEMOCRACIES DIE IN SILENCE too.

Unfortunately, it is starting to seem like the American press didn’t really learn its lesson from the period of journalistic darkness the country went through during G. W. Bush’s first term. It seems that American journalism may again be ready to forget about the First Amendment and sweep it under the Trumpian rug so that the wannabe-tyrant may comfortably trample all over it as he wishes.

Such official silence from the part of those two major organs of information is not a catastrophe, but it sure casts a dark shadow on the future of American Democracy.

--- Please vote Democrat across the board on or before November 5th.

Salaroche