Editorial: Celebrating every American’s liberty
When we in the news business think of Independence Day, it is natural that the First Amendment comes quickly to mind. And with it come thoughts both of liberty and of responsibility.
The First Amendment is not so much a news agency’s reason for being as its permission for being, so we contemplate it with a special reverence, a special appreciation for what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they conceived of the notion of a free press.
The founders, of course, could not have envisioned a suburban daily newspaper whose primary function was to chronicle objectively the events -- big, small and in-between -- of local community life. Indeed, in their day, the newspaper was much more a partisan pamphlet coloring whatever cultural, social or political events it covered with the open ideologies and prejudices of its editors and authors.
Which makes it all the more impressive that the authors of the Constitution saw fit to ensure that all ideas were protected, not just their own. They did not decree that news events be covered ojectively; that’s a concept that evolved organically. Rather, they decreed that government could not get in the way of whatever anyone wanted to say or publish.
That declaration laid the groundwork for community-minded individuals like Daily Herald founder Hosea Paddock to develop a unique mechanism for describing, evaluating, experiencing and affecting local affairs that is accessible to everyone. It may be true as journalist A.J. Liebling famously said that “freedom of the press belongs to the man who owns one,” but it is just as true that it’s available to every man and woman in the country.
The Daily Herald, like all good American newspapers, has always served not just as an outlet for news that its owners and editors consider interesting and important but also as a forum for the opinions and ideas of any citizen with something to say. And that forum, as well as the simple reporting on political and government affairs, forms the basis for all the democracy we celebrate today.
The American Society of Newspaper Editors, the McCormick Foundation, the First Amendment Center and other organizations expand on this notion with a special project launched this week called “1 for All,” an in-depth description and reflection on the meaning and application of the First Amendment. It leads off with this meaningful statement from rapper LL Cool J: “This is our country, and you know, our country has a lot of diversity. It has a lot of different people in it who have a lot of different ideas. And all of those ideas deserve to be heard. All of them.”
Not quite as succinct or pugnacious as Voltaire’s “I disapprove of what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it,” but an eloquent reminder nonetheless that when we celebrate liberty today, we celebrate more than just our own freedom to say, write and think what we want. We also celebrate that of everyone else.