Dear Media,
The founders of our country thought that a free press was so important to the health of our democracy that they guaranteed the ability to do your job in the very first amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
It appears that many of you have been so immersed in a culture of “getting clicks” that you have forgotten your own importance.
This past Wednesday, our country started impeachment hearings for only the 4th time in its entire 243 year history. Our current president appears to have committed, at a minimum, gross abuses of power, bribery, and extortion. The importance of these impeachment proceedings is almost unparalleled in our country.
But apparently none of that matters because you were bored by it all.
It’s staggering how short-sighted and inane that is. The media value of the impeachment hearings is not measured in how entertaining the proceedings are, but how important they are to the health of our democracy. On one hand, the American people need to hear the facts and details of what the president was doing with Ukraine and why. You need to explain how our country normally works with foreign powers, and what is (and isn’t) normal foreign policy.
On the other hand, there is a very real threat that the impeachment hearings will turn up facts that prove conclusively that the president did in fact extort Ukraine by withholding badly needed military funding until they agreed publicly to investigate one of the president’s domestic political rivals, and DESPITE those facts, every member of the Republican party will vote to exonerate the president anyway. The consequences that would have on our democracy are so frightening I can barely finish typing this letter.
Think for a moment what the consequence would be for the press. This is a president who expresses his admiration for dictators who imprison journalists regularly; like Turkish President Erdogan who he met with this week. If the Republican party votes to exonerate our president even in the face of obvious abuses of power, do you really think he’ll feel constrained by the First Amendment?
This moment is too important — we simply cannot have the media be jaded about it. Just because you follow politics closely and already know who Bill Taylor is and what he said in the closed door hearings last month doesn’t mean that the public knows this, too. You must remember that a vast majority of Americans had never heard of Bill Taylor or George Kent or any of the other witnesses who have been named before this week. It is YOUR job to tell them who they are and why they are important in this moment of our history.
For the sake of the republic, get your sh*t together.
Signed,
A Concerned American
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I strongly agree with Your comments in this article! The media should be pointing out why it is inane and dangerous for the Republicans in the hearings to use their comment time not to present a defense, but to try to invalidate the whole process. The media should explain-as often as the Republicans bring it up-that whistle blowers don’t testify publicly, that this is not a criminal trial, that the established impeachment process is being followed, that Hunter Biden testifying in this process is illogical; if they want to go after him, it is a separate process. What matters is that there is evidence that trump sought-in various ways and over a period of time-to have the president of Ukraine investigate the Bidens in return for receiving allotted aid, and a White House visit. It doesn’t matter that the aid was released without the investigation of he Bidens. It matters the trump used his office and power to achieve personal political gain. It matters that trump did this without seeing or caring that it is wrong. It matters that this is not an isolated incident, not just “one phone call”,but a pattern of behavior by this president that ignores rules, norms, and processes of democracy. It matters that this president will ignore facts that are inconvenient , and will never back down from a lie or misstatement(sharpie-gate). A MOC said that in order for the charges against trump to be valid, we would have to be willing to call the president a liar. He is, and we do. And the media needs to point this out -often.
You’re spot on! Yes, it appears that our ‘clicks’ based media needs constant stimulation doesn’t it? They let us down during the 2016 election…they’re doing it again. Pathetic
They need to wake up before he dismantles the free press.
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