Where's the Freedom?

“First they came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.  Then they came for the socialists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.  Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.  Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.  Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Catholic.  Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.”

That poem is by Martin Niemoller, a German pastor and theologian born in 1892, who was sent to the Dachau concentration camp by Hitler’s regime in 1937. He was eventually released from the Dachau in 1945 by the Allies.

It reminds us of the dangers of not recognizing creeping incrementalism, when small steps are being taken to bridge our rights, laying the foundation for larger steps to be taken that take away all of our rights.

This is exactly what’s happening right now with the media in America.

Slowly but surely, the government is infringing upon the rights of the media, and eating away at the freedom of the press.

Nowhere is there more evident than with the ongoing AP leaks scandal, and with the new revelation that Fox News reporter James Rosen was investigated by the Department of Justice for his coverage of the State Department and North Korea. 

In both of these cases, the federal government subpoenaed hundreds of emails and phone call records, under the guise of national security.

But what the federal government has seemed to have forgotten is that the freedom of the press is absolute, and that there are no boundaries to how far the protection of that right goes. 

When our founders formed our nation, they only named one industry in the Constitution.

They didn’t argue that the shipbuilding industry needed to be protected at all costs, or the agriculture industry, or even the arms industry.

They didn’t even think the legislative branch was that important.

But, in the First Amendment to the Constitution, our founders wrote that, “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.”

Our founders wanted to protect the press. They realized that freedom of the press was essential. They recognized that a nation could not be strong without a press able to operate outside of the realm of government oversight and control.

In fact, Thomas Jefferson once famously said that, “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

But times have changed since our Constitution was written, and today, what is supposed to be a free press is under attack from the government. 

On Fox News’ “Special Report” last night, Hume said that, “The government has a right indeed, arguably, a duty to protect the nation’s secrets, some of which are more secret than they ought to be.  But that aside, there are legitimate national security secrets that is the government’s job to protect. And when they leak out, the government has a right and a duty to investigate. But what the government has traditionally done in the past is to investigate the leaker and not, if you will, the leakee. That provides the balance between the government’s job to find out what happened and the press’ right to pursue information. That’s the way it’s been done before. That’s the way it seemed to have been going up until now.”

Traditionally, if there have been leaks in the press, the government has investigated, but it has investigated the source of the leak. It has not gone directly after the journalist or reporter that reported on the leak. 

But now, it seems that our government is going after both the source of the leak, and the members of the media reporting on it, and not only is that unprecedented, it’s unconstitutional. 

This should concern us all.

We all have to be careful that we don’t end up channeling Pastor Niemoller and saying something like, “First they came for the AP and Fox News’ James Rosen, but I wasn’t a part of the AP, and I didn’t like Fox News, so I didn’t speak up.”

It’s time to speak up.

Freedom of the press needed to be protected in 1787, and it needs to be protected today.