“In the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The government’s power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people.” — Hugo Black, U.S. Supreme Court justice (New York Times Co. v. United States 1971)
The freedom of the press has always been one of the cornerstones of our nation; a foundational concept of free democracies everywhere. Justice Black noted that the purpose of the press was to serve the governed. While the efficacy of this service has ebbed and flowed across the ages, it seems that it has been unusually strained over the past century. The press has become more and more a potent tool utilized by the government through the wealthiest few to control the governed. The ability pen narratives has been called a power mightier than the sword. When, on the world stage, the people with control of the swords also control who is allowed to hold the pen, we see freedom diminished. News becomes propaganda. History warns us of this lesson time and time again.
When those who hold power control the narrative, truth becomes fragile—and democracy follows.
The press, however, is not some monolith within a vacuum, immune neither to human nature nor outside pressures. Modern technologies have made it easier than ever to not only obfuscate the truth but to create it from thin digital air. The financial pressures facing large-scale media companies to create “content” to drive revenue is increasingly powerful in a digital landscape measured in mere seconds. Even before the true dawning of the internet age, news outlets were seen to be too quick to hold a “print on page 1, retract on page 23” mentality. Even Ron Howard’s 1994 film, The Paper, drove home this point when one of the main characters, portrayed brilliantly by Glenn Close, told Henry, played equally as well by Michael Keaton that “we only have to be right for a day”.2
The partisan nature of media outlets has also been decried since the founding of our nation. “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.”3 These are the words from former president Thomas Jefferson in 1807 letter to John Norvell. Jefferson expressed concerns about what he believed were falsehoods printed about his presidency by an extremely partisan media.
In comparing these two situations, one a movie, the other a historical record, we do see similarity as well as difference. In The Paper, the subjects who would be harmed by the knowingly rushed reporting were two teenagers wrongfully arrested for murder. People for whom everyone must demand justice. Contrast the letter from Jefferson, in which we hear a former president complaining that “defamation is becoming a necessary of life”3. The subject of any harm here according to Jefferson is perception of his own time as a public servant and the legacy left behind. While knowingly spreading falsehoods against any person is beneath the dignity of a free press, one can hardly empathize too greatly with one of the wealthiest presidents in history who made much of his substantial wealth in part through slavery. It is the duty of all public servants to rise above the fray. It is equally the duty of a free press to have integrity beyond reproach.
With liberty must come responsibility. Whether Jefferson’s opinion was accurate or not, it underscores a very real concern; a widespread perception of media bias is contrary to fulfilling the critical role of a free press in a democratic society. Media outlets owned as for-profit companies by the wealthiest people almost inevitably become heavily censored when the aims of business are at odds with the aims of truth in service to the governed.
Community media outlets have a unique ability to transcend this dynamic. The capacity and pressures to engage in a twenty-four hour news cycle are exactly what allow large media outlets to fall into the trap of “we taint them today, we make them look good on Saturday. Everybody’s happy”2. A community outlet has little, if any, capacity to report substantively on issues of statewide, national, or global scale. It has time and access to focus on understanding their own piece of the world, bringing forth facts, opinions, arts, and events that fills another critical role in democracies- connecting people in ways conducive to genuine dialogue, shared experience, and common purpose in a way that impacts everyday life.
This is not to say that local, community media outlets should gloss over harsh reality or turn a blind eye to injustice. Far from it. It means that community outlets may well be better poised to know that, at the end of the day, the governors are actually people as well. They are our neighbors, sometimes even family or friends. Community media can report facts relevant to the daily existence of their own neighbors. It can tell stories that humanize and pave the way for real change through that humanity. There is a level of accountability that comes with community media. One cannot wield the pen free of consequence when the subject of the defamation is a person who might be the one stopping to help change a tire, reaching for the same item on the grocery store shelf, or sharing a stool nearby at the local coffee shop.
People involved in community media have a unique ability to actually do the work necessary to earn daily a reputation for integrity so when they do shine a light on the governors to support the governed, their words share power and responsibility.
- New York Times Co. v. United States (403 U.S. 713. June 30, 1971). Retrieved 2026, from https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/403/713/.
- (1807) Thomas Jefferson to John Norvell. -06-11. [Manuscript/Mixed Material] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/mtjbib017268/
- Howard, R. (Director). (1994). The paper [Film]. Universal Pictures