Last week, my friend Bianca wrote a beautiful article about the First Amendment. She included a lot of useful statistics and talked about why we should be thankful for this beautiful right.
I want to talk about why I’m thankful for this beautiful right.
America guarantees us all so many freedoms in this wonderful piece of paper known as the Constitution. One of them is the ability to print whatever you want, providing it’s not libelous or false. This right holds so much power.
As a journalism student, I can write an expose about police using excessive force against unarmed black citizens. I could write about riots that break out when speakers with unpopular views come to a campus. I could write about how sad I think the repeal of bathroom protections against transgender students is. If I wanted to, I could write about the fact that our president has all but waged a full-on war against a fair and unbound press, something that America thrives on.
In these, there is truth. There is undeniable truth in all of these accounts, as well as the majority of accounts that the mainstream press publishes. The ‘fake news’ hysteria has turned into a mad tennis match of denying any news that one does not agree with, regardless of what facts are in it. What I love about the First Amendment? We can print it, and we can print the facts to back it up.
The power that the First Amendment gives us is extraordinary. What other amendment gives us the power to hold people accountable in a way that can never be erased? What other amendment gives us the ability to praise something good, and put it on paper for the world to see?
I think the First Amendment gives us so much power and so much responsibility. Finding the facts to back up your argument can be tough. Especially when you’re dealing with real ‘fake news’ and slanted statistics from sources that aren't reliable. Anyone with a pen or a keyboard has the right to sift through those documents and print their minds.
Journalism thrives on freedom of the press. I thrive on knowing that the world is at my fingertips. It excites me to know that my job is one of the few jobs in the world covered by a constitutional amendment. President Trump cannot take that, no matter how hard he tries.
I am so thankful for the ability to print facts without fear of government retribution. I am so grateful that I can do my job the right way, ethically and morally, while having the Founding Fathers back me up.
The press isn’t the enemy of the American people. It’s the savior. It’s the voice. It’s the strength of all of us combined -- readers and writers -- to strive for a better good.
Despite its occasional shortcomings, I stand with the free press. I stand with the First Amendment. I stand with the honest journalists who are printing what needs to be said. I stand with a press that helps and informs, not a force that stifles it.
