Don Lemon is not my kind of infotainer.
I tried watching his CNN show, but too often he sounded like just another cable “news” talking head. And I haven’t watched anything he’s done since, from Twitter-streaming to whatever it is now.
But that’s not the point and it shouldn’t be.
In this country, journalists should not be arrested for trying to do their jobs, whether you like their work or not, whether the government likes their work or not. It’s a significant reason why we have the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
But along with two others, the U.S. Department of Justice sought a criminal indictment against them and arrested them for doing their jobs while documenting a Minnesota protest. Then the White House crowed about it on social media.
The Society of Professional Journalists, an organization I joined, with the support of my colleagues, last year nearly 30 years after leaving journalism, because it’s needed more than ever, said it best in a statement:
“Arresting newsgatherers violates the public’s foundational democratic right to full, fair, comprehensive and contextualized accounts of daily events. Journalists are not the story – they are the eyes and ears of the public. Arresting them for covering the news is a dangerous step toward eliminating government accountability and weakening democracy. A democracy cannot function when journalists face handcuffs for bearing witness.”
If you make your living under the protection of the First Amendment – in news, public relations, advertising, marketing or any related field – this should get your attention. Yet another “that would never happen” moment has happened.
A year a ago, I warned you that when it comes to communications, the U.S. appeared to be headed toward Hungary. Please read that again if you have time. Today, I’m writing this post. I wish, instead, I was able to write “I was wrong.”