Editor:
So, what is so great about the free press?
It reports news to the American public; it provides the facts to important stories and separates what is true and what is not true (lies).
Investigative journalism through the free press exposes political corruption, criminal activity by organizations and individuals.
This important news information allows the public to move forward for us to be the great nation that our founding fathers wanted us to be.
Reporting news with truthful facts will always be a noble cause for any free and just society to succeed and prosper us now and for future generations.
Let’s go back in history to the free press releasing secret documents known as the Pentagon Papers.
The Pentagon Papers proved that the federal government had long lied to the U.S. public and Congress.
They contained information about the United States military involvement in South Vietnam starting in January 1955.
It became known as the Vietnam War, fighting communist North Vietnam, which invaded South Vietnam in March 1954.
The Pentagon Papers were released by the New York Times on June 15, 1971. The Pentagon Papers revealed embarrassing facts about our long-term continuation in this military activity.
The U.S. government under the Republican/Richard M. Nixon administration filed a lawsuit against the New York Times, which went to the U.S. Supreme Court. The final vote on that lawsuit was 6-3 in favor of the New York Times on June 30, 1971.
This is what was said by the Supreme Court’s decision. In brief terms: Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of the press.
Both the history and language of the First Amendment support the view that the press must be left free to publish news, whatever the source, without censorship, further injunctions or prior restraints.
In the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors.
The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.
As we pursue the ongoing investigation by the U.S. House of Representatives into the Jan. 6 insurrection attack on our nation’s Capitol, the freedom of the press and the news media will be there reporting truthful facts.
As was already reported, this horrific event was based on the so-called “Big Lie,” that the 2020 presidential and vice presidential election was stolen with mass fraud.
Let us Americans be thankful for our free press and our news media providing the truth in their reporting of the news. Some nations of the world that do not have a democratic government do not have a free press like the U.S.
Again, thank you, our founding fathers of the United States.
Thomas E. Carter
Rio Rancho
