Carrying the torch of freedom

Newspapers have been publishing in this land longer than there
has been a United States. The first patriots and rebels were
spurred to action by colonial journalists and a fledgling Free
Press. The Revolution against the British Crown, the Declaration of
Independence, the ratification of the U.S. Constitution and the
establishment of the world’s greatest democratic society would not
have taken place without free and independent newspapers.
This week is National Newspaper Week (Oct. 4-10) and the theme
is “Carrying the Torch of Freedom.” Some may think of the “torch of
freedom” as a far away concern. Many more may take their freedoms
for granted. Still others will consider the study of democracy and
a free press as pure academics and unrelated to their daily
lives.
This is not the case at this newspaper.
While being almost exclusively occupied by less lofty pursuits
as city hall reports, school board budgets and local public life,
the geographic spread of our enterprise does not measure our
commitment to “carrying the torch of freedom.” Our weekly page
count does not limit our resolve to protect the public’s right to
open government and our pledge to preserve our guaranteed freedoms
in the Bill of Rights.
This newspaper’s franchise is more accurately measured by the
trust of our readers who continue to rely on us to provide an
accurate and impartial account of current events. We are the
watchdogs of local government, bureaucracies and over-zealous
special interests.
“Our free press does more than tell our people the history of
our times. It explains that history, interprets it, and, so doing,
often actually helps to create that history.
“A free press and a free society are essentially one. As the
press can know freedom only in a democratic state, so democracy
itself is fortified by a free press.” This statement was provided
by former president Dwight D. Eisenhower on the occasion of an
earlier National Newspaper week in 1959.
Economic tumult, technological advancements and cultural shifts
have greatly changed the way we look at newspapers. Their historic
importance is secure but their future is anything but certain.
Being said, if American newspapers are declining — and they are
— then what is to become of the “torch of freedom?” If this torch
falls, who, or what, will pick it up and go forward?
We live in a world of fast-changing events and light-speed
communications. We blog, twitter, text and scan for messages, news
bits and postings. We can have 24/7 Internet feeds and automated
downloads to our I-pods. But none of that has anything to do with
the torch of freedom.
As with America’s original Patriots (some called them Colonial
terrorists), the torch of freedom endures only where a people give
it a high value, calling it a God-given or inalienable Right.
In America today, if the torch of freedom is seen as flickering
it probably has more to do with the public’s lack of understanding
of both its frailty and potency than with any predicted demise of
newspapers.
Some recent public opinion polls show that many people in this
country believe the press has too much freedom. Some poll results
support setting limits on freedom of speech. One mock survey found
a majority of responses opposed to the basic language of the Bill
of Rights.
For all our amazing communication advances, we seem to have lost
a need for the bright torches that have brought our great democracy
this far. If we have 24-hour contact with Wall Street, Hollywood,
Cyberspace and Myspace, why do we need an eternal flame that seems
to only illuminate our Past?
Perhaps because the future of our real freedoms depends on the
lessons to be found there. And in newspapers.
— Rollie Atkinson