If you own a telephone, computer, or television, you are privy to the combative relationship of our current U.S. Administration and the free press. The President of the United States calls media outlets “fake news,” lashes out on them on Twitter and in seemingly unrelated speeches. It has been a staple of the Trump presidency thus far.
And such a time as this The Post is released starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks as Kay Graham and Ben Bradlee, the publisher and editor of The Washington Post at the time of the publication of the Pentagon Papers. The Pentagon Papers detailed the ongoing failure and subsequent cover up of the Vietnam War effort that spanned 4 presidencies in American history, an event which paved the way for the revelation of the infamous Watergate scandal.
The story follows Kay Graham played by Meryl Streep in her operation of The Washington Post, a newspaper company left to her husband by her father which then went to her upon the death of her husband. Bradlee, the editor, presents her with the document detailing the government’s deliberate action to continue the effort in Vietnam despite prior knowledge by the American government that the war was a lost cause for the sole purpose of saving face and appearing victorious. Graham faces the predicament of publishing the information for the good of American people and potentially going to jail or staying silent.
One of the fun aspects of the movie is the methods of communication. The errand boy has to run documents across the city to deliver to the publishing office, a scene of four payphones lined up on the street for calls is a throwback and each household has 3-5 corded phones, all rotary.
The message, however, is timeless. A line repeated in the movie by Hanks’ character is “the only way to assert the right to publish is to publish.” Every generation of people in every nation questions “How free should free speech be?” Should we silence hate speech, harmful speech, or ideas we disagree with? Or is everything permissible? We have seen where blatant disregard for decorum is harmful. Just this week the media is indignant with statements Donald Trump made regarding immigration that were appalling by any standard. We only know this and have the luxury of reaction because the press is free to print it. Media outlets in Russia do not get such a luxury.
The American government is a system of checks and balances. The Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches are intended to bring accountability to each other, maintain integrity, and block corruption. When there are legal, moral, and ethical violations, we rely on the press to expose them. Bradlee’s character said of the government in the film, “They lied. We have to be the check in their power or no one will.” Power can very much be corrupting. I don’t personally have the ability to march to the White House and demand to know what my federal tax money is being spent on, but journalists do. We rely on them to give us fair information, not alternative facts.
I hope for the future of America that the press continues to leak information because the American people deserve to know. Just as an employer must see the results of the work of their employees, we must see the progress of our elected and tax-funded officials. This administration along with every administration before it must know that the American people will not stand for corruption, deceit, propaganda, and actions that do not align with American values. Our journalists and reporters are not backing down from their duty to report accurate facts and findings. The Post is a cautionary tale to our current government that the truth will always find a way to be heard.
Featured image via The Post on Instagram
