By Ande Jacobson
I am not a journalist. I am not a celebrity. I am just an American. I spent my career working as a software/systems engineer for a couple of major government contractors. I also grew up during a time when history and civics were required courses in primary and secondary school. In fact, as I’ve mentioned in some previous essays, I went through school during a time when we studied Watergate as it was happening. That made civics come to life in a spectacular fashion. While I am no expert, from my studies and my work experience, I have some knowledge of our nation’s history and how our government is supposed to work, and right now, it is not working as it should.
The Constitution calls out the free press explicitly as the public has the right, or some might even say duty, to be informed. For democracy to work, the electorate must be engaged and informed in order to participate responsibly. Every president in the past has received some media coverage that they didn’t like as well as some that they did, but never before the current occupant of the White House has a president taken such extreme steps to muzzle the press and prevent them from reporting fairly to the public. Never before has a president effectively prohibited the press from criticizing them, yet now we have a president who sues every outlet that dares to report the truth. More than that, we now have a president whose single biggest achievement has been to deny the American public a common understanding of the truth. That’s not to say that there isn’t an objective truth. Truth isn’t fungible, but finding it has become a challenge for us all. What this administration has done through media manipulation, constantly lying about everything that they are doing, and obfuscating anything unfavorable is to create doubt even about what we personally observe. It’s right out of George Orwell’s 1984.
Corporate media has become complicit in this by largely acceding to this president’s demands and not reporting on things that he finds unfavorable. The result is that the public can largely no longer trust corporate media for accurately reporting on things of importance if they put the president in an unfavorable light. Sadly, this means that pretty much everything this administration is doing has become fodder for fiction rather than factual reporting by corporate media.
In response to the lack of accurate information from traditional corporate media sources, independent media has developed to bridge the gap. With the rise of the internet, anybody can create their own website, and through multiple social media platforms, some quite slanted, others less so, these sites can reach a wide audience. Independent professionals have taken action to make their voices heard. Historians report on current events from an historical perspective on their own sites. Countless attorneys share their expertise on various aspects of the law and on the crucial proceedings that are currently working their way through the courts. Doctors and scientists have joined the quest to keep the public informed on subjects of interest and importance ranging from public health, to climate change, to technological advances, to space exploration and more. Religious leaders too are speaking out on questions of ethics and faith. Political operatives of all stripes are trying to reach their constituents and the public at large to keep them informed about what’s actually happening behind closed doors. Numerous journalists have left corporate media to independently report fairly and honestly to keep the public informed. That’s not to say that there aren’t still some excellent journalists in the employ of corporate media, but more and more their voices are being silenced or rewritten to fit the narrative the president, and by extension, their corporate leadership demands.
All that said, it speaks volumes that when an alleged presidential assassination attempt is reported, people from across the political spectrum immediately think it’s been staged by this president and his team to garner sympathy and obfuscate the many issues facing this administration. Without a thorough and unbiased investigation, we can’t know exactly what happened or why. Will that happen under this administration? Time will tell, but those of us sitting in our homes across the country don’t know what actually happened. There are reports from people who were there, or who were close by about what they witnessed. There are also some suspicious actions, like the President and his team smiling broadly at the press conference they gave shortly after the event making wild accusations that have yet to be confirmed, but even so, we don’t know the details. The one thing that this president has shown us time and time again is that nothing that he or his people say can be trusted without first being independently verified.
We weren’t there, but no matter what the investigation eventually shows, violence is never the answer. That’s not to say that this president doesn’t have numerous issues that are serious problems for him and his administration. There are, although they are largely self-inflicted.
Despite this president and his administration lying about current events and crucial actions they are taking, violence is never the answer.
Despite this president’s long pursuit of fomenting hate, anger, and violence against those he dislikes and vilifying those with whom he disagrees or who don’t support him, violence is not the answer.
Despite this administration doubling down on terrorizing the public with a militarized force reporting only to the administration, violence isn’t the answer.
Despite this administration engaging in an unprovoked war of choice against public opinion and without the consent of Congress, violence isn’t the answer.
Despite this administration’s attacks on science, universities, and any entity that dares to speak out against them even though that speech is protected by the Constitution, violence isn’t the answer.
Despite this president’s alleged (as it has not yet been proven in a court of law) involvement in a sex-trafficking ring, violence isn’t the answer.
Despite this president fomenting an insurrection to remain in power at the end of his first administration, violence isn’t the answer.
Despite this president doing all he can to enrich himself and his family through desperate schemes to defraud the American people, violence isn’t the answer.
Despite this president having been convicted of 34 felony counts of fraud and being adjudicated as having committed sexual assault, violence isn’t the answer.
The answer is to keep speaking out. The answer is to vote responsibly. The answer is to ensure that full investigations are done to determine what really happened, not just report what fits a desired narrative or promote conspiracy theories that feel good. The answer is to continue demanding that this president and his administration be fully and fairly investigated for their actions, and if warranted, held accountable under the law. The answer is to tell our representatives what we need and want. We can and must voice our objections, but it’s also crucial to be just as vocal about what we want so that our representatives can work for those things.
The answer is to also support independent reporting so that we can all stay informed.
It’s tough to be an American these days. There’s more friction than I’ve ever seen before. We’ve always had the responsibility to be engaged as citizens, and I have always voted and stayed informed on the issues that I cared about, but now that responsibility goes beyond just voting. We all have to do our part, whatever that may be. Even the little things matter. Helping our neighbors makes a difference. Talking with our friends and family tells them that we care. Together we can get through all of this.
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