Some American heroes carry pens, recorders and notebooks
Last week, the world stopped turning, at least for us, when the president publicly declared he didn’t think Russia was responsible for attacking our election in 2016 despite an abundance of evidence to the contrary.
After walking it back Tuesday, he appeared to walk back the walk-back Wednesday when asked — twice — if he thought Russia remained a threat. “No.”
Later in the day, he told CBS News correspondent Daniel Dale in an interview that he holds Vladimir Putin responsible for attacks on the election. Who’s on first?
Who the hell knows?
None of this would have occurred were it not for American reporters who were not afraid to speak truth to power in the form of pointed questions following the disastrous U.S-Russia summit Monday in Helsinki.
It was Jeff Mason of Reuters who asked the president: “You tweeted this morning that it’s U.S. foolishness, stupidity and the Mueller probe that is responsible for the decline in U.S relations with Russia. Do you hold Russia at all accountable for anything in particular? If so, what would you consider them that they are responsible for?”
It’s first for a reason
Jonathan Lemire from Associated Press followed with: “A question for each president. President Trump, you first. Just now President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every U.S. intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did.”
You already know the rest. Because Vladimir Putin’s government poisons his critics and kills journalists, there’s no way a Russian journalist would have dared to press those questions on a world stage.
The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 58 Russian journalists have been murdered since 1992.
Of that number, 33 of the murders were committed with impunity.
Other Russian reporters have been imprisoned, sometimes for years. Earlier this year, a Russian journalist and Putin critic had to fake his own killing in order to flush out people who were threatening his life.
The First Amendment in the U.S. Constitution is first for good reason: The founders knew democracy would die in its crib without the enshrinement of free speech; without first protecting the press from those in power who would just as soon not be questioned, criticized or second-guessed.
One of those founders, Thomas Jefferson, remarked: “The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right. And were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
As members of Congress continue to act like the kid in class who’s pretending to be invisible so he won’t get called on, it was journalists who reminded everyone that Helsinki wasn’t the first time the president undercut America’s intelligence community while going easy on Putin for his nefarious behavior.
It can happen to you
It was journalists who reminded us of how NATO’s works — contrary to the president’s error-filled bloviating — and why that treaty still matters.
It was journalists who pointed out his weird animosity toward tiny Montenegro, which sent troops to serve alongside Americans in Afghanistan, and whose recent NATO membership has become a thorn in Putin’s side.
It now makes perfect sense why Dusko Markovic, the prime minister of Montenegro, was so rudely shoved aside by the president during a photo shoot at last year’s NATO conference.
It was journalists who got the White House to admit last week it was considering Vladimir Putin’s request to allow Russian prosecutors to interrogate two private American citizens: financier Bill Browder, an outspoken anti-Putin critic; and Michael McFaul, a former Obama administration ambassador who advocated sanctions against Russia.
If it happens to them, it can happen to you.
Last week, the New York Times reported the president received a highly classified briefing in January 2017, which showed how Putin personally ordered cyberattacks on the 2016 election.
So, amid all the “witch hunt” accusations and the “400 pound guy on a bed” equivocations, he knew.
He knew.
In the decades to come, it will be noted that on July 16, 2018, it wasn’t Clark Kent, G.I. Joe, the Justice League or the ghost of John Wayne who demonstrated to the world, yet again, what makes America great. It was real-life, courageous, insistent journalists.