Freedom of press essential to freedom for all

The freedom of a nation’s press is essential to the freedom of its people.

It is so essential that the framers of the U.S. Constitution wrote in the First Amendment, “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.”

Providing for these freedoms transcended the founders own interests and time.

I.F. Stone, an early 20th century investigative journalist said, “All governments are run by liars and nothing they say should be believed.”

This statement is the quintessential reason why a free people need a strong free press. If an unfettered media could not report on the government, citizens would be helpless to do other than believe the equivocations proffered by politicians from both sides of the aisle.

Stone is most famous for sniffing out the kernel of truth hidden among voluminous government records available to the public. His work stands as a lasting legacy of investigative journalism.

Because of journalists like Stone and the protections of the First Amendment, U.S. citizens still enjoy the right implicit in freedom of the press—to know what is going on in their government.

This necessity is just as true on CSC’s campus, with respect to our own student government.

Even though CAB and Student Senate meetings are open to the student body—except for the senate’s executive sessions—not every student exercises that right, nor should he or she be required to.

A majority of the student body depends upon the weekly reports in The Eagle for unbiased information about what is happening in their student government.

By not attending Student Senate, my opinions about its activities are based on the same records available to every member of the student body.

However, it has been suggested more than once—including in Senator at Large James Bahensky’s and Student Senate President Jake Zitterkopf’s letters last week—that I should attend Student Senate meetings before I criticize their dealings.

Would sparkling compliments about the Student Senate be met with the same response?

Predicating my commentary on attendance could not be more wrong. And to assume that my opinion would differ if I were to attend meetings is equally wrong.

With that said, if any member of the senate feels The Eagle’s weekly senate reports are factually incorrect or somehow skew the truth, please address the issue via letter to the editor.

However, if the information in The Eagle’s reports is accurate, I cannot be criticized solely on the basis that I did not hear it in person.

Returning to the analogy of national scale, a writer for the New York Times is not required to attend sessions of America’s congressional bodies.

Informed by the free press, CSC’s student body, just as the United States’ citizenry, act as a fourth branch of check and balance upon its government.

Every decent person should not be afraid to speak up in opposition where necessary.