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Last week, Bill Roberts asked if I would be interested in being a special guest on Reel County: The Movie Thing, a 99.3 County FM radio show which he hosts. He asked if I would join him to discuss the movie The Post and, perhaps, share my journalistic view on the tough decisions facing writers and editors and the risk a newspaper takes when publishing thought-provoking opinions. I have to admit I was flattered, and my first thought was, “Stress aside, let’s do it.” But I didn’t do it. It’s not that I am afraid to approach a controversial subject. I didn’t do it because I was afraid my voice would let me down. I have Sjogren’s Syndrome, which is an autoimmune disease and I’m one of the afflicted who is sometimes rendered “speechless”. I can actually hear Janet and Susan laughing at the thought of me being unable to make word-noise.
While I have been speechless on many occasions, I am never without an opinion and I’m not really afraid to approach a topic head-on. Writing gives me the voice I often struggle to find physically. As a person who gets an opinion published, I have never felt inclined to hold back on the truth (as I see it), whatever the consequences. And there have been consequences when I’ve exercised my right to/for freedom of information, commentary and criticism. I actually didn’t know how deep the water was when I was asked to step into the waves known as “writing for The Times”. I’m ashamed to say I might have backed away if I had known there would be toes stepped upon, feelings hurt, letters written, opinions not the same as mine and folks who could be downright mean when public information was written about and published. Interestingly enough, the movie Bill wanted to discuss—with me as his guest— was about a hugely controversial topic. To this day, there is a lot of debate surrounding the reason for publishing of the Pentagon Papers.
I was a much younger person when the events leading up to the story took place in the late 1960s. I remember the very heated discussion around our table, with friends, in 1971 when the Post decided to publish the papers. Of course, all of this prompted the writing of the screenplay and the filming of the movie. If you happen to be on the sunny or shady side of my age, and some of you are, you may well remember the war in Vietnam. Everyone knew someone who had protested, or marched, or had been drafted, or who dodged the draft. If you remember those days, then you’ll remember the great hue and cry when the Post decided to publish information that had been considered Top Secret. When the actual story behind the publication of the Pentagon Papers came to life, a lot was on the line for a great number of people. Many felt it was a breach of the national security. Many thought the time had come to air the laundry with regard to the Vietnam War and how politicians really felt about it. Many were quite surprised to hear there’s more to war than being a humanitarian. Some felt the publication was a financially driven decision by the Post, to bolster its readership and add to the coffers. As financially driven as the War itself.
I was young enough to believe it was a story that needed to be told. I was young enough to believe a journalist’s job is to empower their readers with information so they can make their own decisions and choices about their communities, their own lives and their government. I was young enough to believe that a journalist’s job was to protect the source of the information. I was young enough to believe a journalist’s responsibility to the public came before the wants and needs of a third party.
I’m still that young and, maybe, still a bit naive.
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