Challenge
The Cone of Silence
My fuddy-duddy generation is hungry for facts. And a trustworthy moderator of them. Walter Cronkite is dead and Dan Rather’s reach is more limited now. Substack is a silo of opinion.
Alternative Facts
Perhaps journalism wandered off the high road of impartial reporting of empirical fact before Donald John Trump ran for high office the first time. For sure, in the summer of 2016 his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, shocked and alarmed me with the bold assertion that truth is a matter of subjective (read partisan) perspective. A world of “alternative facts” exists that supports statements untethered from and not beholden to reality.
She was a fierce and articulate voice for the self-serving statements and convenient partial truths useful to her candidate.
I do not know when journalism lost its footing and its way. Clearly, it was already past the guardrail, over the edge and well down a very slippery slope in 2016.
Anyone familiar with the works of George Orwell, Lewis Carroll, Mother Goose, Aesop, and the Brothers Grimm would have viewed Kellyanne’s justification for useful distortions with suspicion. It is a short putt between alternative facts and propaganda. Partisan and bombastic campaign rhetoric does not equate to or support sound public policy.
Well-Heeled Quislings
On 01 Oct 2013, Jeffrey Preston Bezos Jorgensen purchased The Washington Post from the Graham family for $250 million in cash. The sale was to a limited liability company, Nash Holdings, through which Jeff owned the newspaper. In March of 2014 he lifted the online paywall for subscribers in Texas, Hawaii, and Minnesota. In 2016, he reinvented the Post as a media and technology company by reconstructing its digital media, mobile platforms, and analytics software. His efforts were rewarded by a surge in readership that made the enterprise profitable for the first time since transfer of ownership three years previously.
He took an active interest in the paper’s content. In 2024 he exercised his proprietorial rights to intermeddle with editorial and opinion pages. And a national election. He pulled an endorsement of Kamala Harris in October. But he did not support Trump. He was walking a very fine line to protect his sprawling portfolio of business interests. Here are the major ones.
· Amazon
o Whole Foods
o Audible
o IMDb
o Zappos
o Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
o Twitch
o ZooX
o Ring
o Alexa and IVONA Software
o Kiva Systems
o One Medical
· Blue Origin
· The Washington Post
On 04 Jan 25, the very talented Pulitzer-prize winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes quit rather than accept rejection of a political cartoon lampooning Jeff and other tech and media titans rushing to Mar-a-Lago bend a knee to The Great One after he won a second term in high office.
Ann submitted the sketch before Christmas. It was never published.
While at Mar-a-Lago, the suplicants pledged seven-figure contributions to forthcoming inaugural celebrations. On 07 Jan 25, it became public knowledge that Jeff had paid $40 million for the right to document Melania’s life story.
Members of the nascent Resistance 2.0 protested Jeff’s willingness to pay to play with Trump 2.0. Ann’s resignation fueled an angry response to the surrender of journalistic integrity and First Amendment freedoms. The Post lost around 250,000 digital subscribers after its decision not to endorse a candidate in Election 2024. These dissatisfied persons joined a broader decline in support for the Post. It has lost about 500,000 subscribers since the end of 2020. Despite this trend, the Post boasts 2.5 million subscribers, making it the third-largest newspaper in the U.S. after The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
A Welcome Surprise
On 04 May 25, The Washington Post made a serious run at another Pulitzer-prize award. It published a well-researched accounting of “Trump’s 48-Hour Scramble to Fly Immigrants to a Salvadoran Prison.”
This is the most solid piece of investigative journalism since Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodard uncovered the illegal actions taken to try to assure Richard Nixon’s second term in office. Signal Gate is bad. This scandal is as bad or worse.
It has legs and lungs and a strong heart able to make the distance to criminal indictments against cabinet members and a successful impeachment of the 47th president of the United States.
A cone of silence has descended over the article since its publication. But the bell has been rung and it cannot now be unheard.
Anthem
Hats off to those who are planning, supporting, and attending visible signs of a growing resistance to Trump 2.0. And all honor and glory to the educational institutions, lower court justices, politicians, lawyers, journalists, and media spokespersons defying implementation of the illegal aspects of the Project 2025 playbook.
And praise all gods great and small for the reporters and editors at The Washington Post for trailing the smoke back to the trigger finger on the hot Trump 2.0 gun.
For shining a hard light of fact upon the administration’s illegal actions and willful disregard for the rule of law as set forth in the Constitution of the United States, its various amendments, and all laws and decisions strengthening concepts upon which We the People depend to assure our lives, liberties, security, and welfare. Those precious things to which we pledge our allegiance and of which we sing.
The early strengthening of Resistance 2.0 is a precious and fragile early spring flower. It needs constant care and close attention to survive and thrive. Do not let the 04 May 25 Washington Post reporting disappear.
These are interesting times. Articles of impeachment against Trump and Thomas are active or promised. These accusations need favorable 2026 midterm results to have any hope for life.
We the People await the next exciting chapter in the Clash of the Titans (between the imperial executive and his corrupt high court). Will the 7-2 margin of sanity and sound jurisprudence hold? Will Thomas and Alito be allowed to continue to participate? Stand by time on these questions likely will be brief.
It is important to remember that Donald John Trump believes “only the weak will fail.”
Let us continue to be faithful, strategic, and strong in our resistance to the fact and effects of his Reign of Terror and Tour of Revenge.
Let us continue to pull up our socks and step into the breach now, every Power of One person dissatisfied with the results and consequences of Election 2024.
Let us continue to put into play our persons and our purses every day in every peaceful way everywhere all at once to demand:
A return to positions of principle those persons, institutions, and organizations betraying a public trust in their integrity when bending a knee, kissing the ring, funding the personal wealth, or furthering the ambitions of Donald John Trump.
The bringing of criminal charges against Musk and articles of impeachment against Trump.
Resumption of support of Ukraine, NATO, WHO, IMF and related international organizations and accords dedicated to the proposition of global peace, health, and prosperity.
The bringing of articles of impeachment against corrupt justices now contaminating the opinions of the high court.
Referendum and recall of congressional representatives not faithful to their oath of office and/or unresponsive to the concerns and wishes of their constituents.
Creation of a Shadow Cabinet charged with daily briefings of administrative assaults upon the rule of law, the health, safety, and welfare of We the People, and simple decency.
Course correction on the conduct of matters related to national security.
I truly believe that right is might.
Resist. Persist. Prevail.
In a world where “only the weak will fail,” let us continue to be strong.
We cannot, we will not, fail.
Go, team, go.
Applause: A cone of silence has descended over the article since its publication. But the bell has been rung and it cannot now be unheard.
Dan Rather has already commented on the state of journalism today and we agree that independent, truth-insisting, ethical journalist are still out there. Some still work for the largest corporate media, starting with #1 Wall Street Journal, #2 New York Times, and #4 Washington Post. Others have resigned to go find freedom of the press elsewhere. Some of these journalists on Substack have a subscriber base that is much higher than local and regional press.
There's too much news and too many good reporters left and there is still the Pulitzer Prize, respected and independently run since 1917. Trump may try to buy it or shut it down; still, he has too much on his reign of terror calendar already. I'm betting the Pulitzer Prize and ethical journalists (not corrupt, not compromised) will still be here after Trump is gone.