Press must expose truth on monsters

Sometimes my own people make me sick — and by that I mean liberals and journalists. Take Megyn Kelly for instance. She is right to interview Alex Jones, a monster and a 9/11 denier, who called the Newtown, Conn., massacre of 20 innocent, screaming, frightened, 6- and 7-year-olds and the six school employees trying to protect them “a government hoax.”

If we persist in keeping a double standard for what is freedom of the press and what is oppression, than we are no different than the bigots and conspiracy theorists who condemn us.

We are righteously furious at President Trump for trying to strangle freedom of the press, while at the same time we are self-righteously furious with Kelly for exercising her rights as a journalist and lawyer to interview the hatemongering conspiracy lunatic Alex Jones. Even the right wants it killed.

If the left and the right are both equally angry, that means she’s done her job.

Yes, Jones is a despicable, misinformed, certifiable paranoid loudmouth, bigoted freak, but he’s a paranoid freak with a big internet following of likeminded haters.

Do we liberals and journalists REALLY believe that freedom of the press and freedom of speech should only be given to those with whom we agree?

In my time, I have interviewed my share of monsters. Isn’t that the responsibility of a journalist? How can we ever find out what is in the mind of the wicked if we don’t interview them; if we don’t expose their hate?

Should Dan Rather not have interviewed Saddam Hussein before the 2003 invasion, Diane Sawyer not have interviewed Charles Manson, nor Katie Couric Edward Snowden? Should the New York Times and JuJu Chang both have declined to interview transgender military-documents-leaker ex-con Chelsea Manning?

Not every interview was hardball, true, but every one exposed cracks in the armor of the beasts.

If we could go back in time, would I as a journalist have wanted to interview Idi Amin, Hitler, Stalin? You bet.

It is the need to know that separates the courageous reporters from the cowardly, fake news, self-proclaimed reporters who hide behind their computers without ever meeting a monster face-to-face.