The Post

One thing I teach in my composition classes at Delta College is how to evaluate a research source, how to decide whether or not an author, an article, a publication, a website, or news organization is trustworthy. In the digital age of information, it is more important than ever before in history to know how to tell which sources of information you can trust and which you can’t. One of the most unsettling things I hear from my students is “All news sources are crooked. You can’t trust anybody.” This is unfortunate first because it’s lazy thinking and second because it’s simply untrue.  To just dismiss all news sources out of hand shows no critical thinking, no investigation, and an arrogant lack of effort.

Beyond that though, there are news organizations with aggressive editors, fact checkers, peer reviewers, and a devotion to fact and truth that goes beyond party, politics, or bias. Yes, there are organizations out there that try to look like news but are nothing more than opinion, bluster, and propaganda, and yes, some legitimate news organizations may have a slightly more conservative or liberal bend in their interests, but to say that all news is fake is just wrong.

What’s more, a legitimate free press is as essential to our democracy as the right to vote or worship as we please. Without a free press, the United States of America wouldn’t actually have a democracy. And there have been times in our history when journalists have played roles as pivotal to the shaping of our republic as Presidents and generals.

One of these pivotal moments is recounted in Steven Spielberg’s latest, The Post. It stars Meryl Streep as Katherine Graham, the publisher of the Washington Post, and Tom Hanks as Ben Bradlee, the Post’s dogged executive editor. Set mostly in 1971, the film tells the story of Graham’s decision to let Bradlee publish and report on what became known as the Pentagon Papers. In essence, the papers revealed that four presidential administrations knew the US couldn’t win but kept sending soldiers to fight and die because no one wanted to be responsible for “losing” the Viet Nam conflict. It was damning evidence that, of course, no government official ever wanted to see the light of day, especially not when the war was still going on. The New York Times and then the Washington Post intended to publish and the government took them to court, accusing them of threatening U.S. secrets. If the government won its claim, everyone involved could have gone to prison.

All while this is going on Graham is trying to take her smallish, independent paper public to keep it from going under, and the slightest whiff of trouble could send her banker investors scrambling away. There was a tremendous amount at stake personally and professionally for Graham, Bradlee, and all the reporters, editors, and sources who worked to crack the story. More than that though, what was also at stake was the ability for a free press to remain free, to report the truth and facts as they found it unimpeded by a corrupt administration that wanted to dictate what could be reported, when, and by whom.

I trust it’s no spoiler to say that following a hearing before the US Supreme Court, the press won. The articles were published, the Nixon administration was enraged, and the Washington Post gained nation-wide prestige. More importantly, the American people were informed about the truth by skilled, principled journalists committed to uncovering what the privileged and the powerful sought to hide.

Spielberg’s film is uniformly excellent, but I particularly appreciate it because it highlights not just an important time in our history but an important profession. Real journalists, crabby, coffee-stained, and flawed though they may be, are crucial to the functioning of our government. Yes, there is fake news out there, but there is also real news and we should all listen to it.