Last week our own (or more accurately, the city of Jeffersonville's) News and Tribune hopped on the Boston Globe "free press" bandwagon with all available leaden feet, then returned to rescued kitten stories, (short)cut 'n' pastes from local restaurant social media feeds, and a third -- fifth, 32nd, 315th -- weekly Tom May column.
Ironically, "dereliction of duty" is the Trump-obsessed News and Tribune's default as it pertains to the excesses of Team Gahan.
... We can be sure that somewhere this morning deep within the labyrinthine bowels of the down-low bunker, over decaf coffee and Eggo waffles, Team Gahan is laughing aloud at the News and Tribune's editorial.
Not because the editorial isn't correct. It is. But Jeffrey and the gang know it has nothing to do with them, because the newspaper will not practice locally what it preaches nationally.
Just imagine if the local chain newspaper's management team actually applied these bold sentiments not only in denunciation of the faraway president, but as a daily mission statement to monitor the persistent chicanery of local officials.
To repeat, Bill "Make Advertising Great Again" Hanson and the editorial team are perfectly correct to defend a free press from attacks by the moron-in-chief, although when it comes to deploying this situation for the community's benefit, they all should stand to be reminded of Abraham Lincoln's vexed comment about his primary general's unwillingness to fight the enemy:
"If General McClellan does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it for a time."
It's interesting to note that not every newspaper in America joined the parade. In this op-ed piece, John Diaz of the San Francisco Chronicle explains why his editorial board did not, and perhaps the conclusion states it best:
Our editorial page will continue to speak out against this president’s war on the free press. Our silence on Thursday is testament to our commitment to do it in our own way, on our own timetable.
Wait ... this feels almost like a pulse, from a newspaper accustomed to walking the walk and not merely talking the talk. It must be nice to have a newspaper like that, but in New Albany, we don't know the feeling. For the likes of Jeff Gahan, the News and Tribune isn't the free press.
It's more like a free pass.
Why the San Francisco Chronicle isn’t joining the editorial crowd on Trump, by John Diaz (San Francisco Chronicle)
When the Boston Globe called on the nation’s newspaper editorial boards to come together against President Trump’s “dirty war on the free press,” regular readers of The San Francisco Chronicle no doubt assumed we would be among the first in line.
After all, in our unsigned editorials and in my Sunday column, this newspaper’s criticism of Trump’s efforts to delegitimize, threaten and neuter independent journalism has been clear, emphatic and repeated since the early days of his presidential campaign.
But our editorial board will not be joining the estimated 300 newspapers which have signed on to the Globe’s pitch for a coordinated editorial campaign in Thursday’s editions.
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