“I love America more than any other country in the world, and exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”
This is the James Baldwin quote that Mark Harvey, board president of Aspen Journalism, feels best wraps up the mission of his news agency. As part of this mission, Aspen Journalism presented a talk on July 12 entitled “The State of Independent Journalism” which featured Stephen Engelberg, editor-in-chief of ProPublica.
For those who don’t know, ProPublica is a highly-acclaimed, national investigative news platform. The nonprofit publication’s mission is “to expose abuses of power and betrayals of the public trust by government, business and other institutions, using the moral force of investigative journalism to spur reform through the sustained spotlighting of wrongdoing.” Their 500-person newsroom has received a grand total of 37 national journalism awards, including eight Pulitzer Prizes, despite only existing for 17 years.
Moving along to the content of the event, Engelberg had many insights to share on how journalism interacts with our daily lives, as well as our democracy. He focused heavily on how corporate control affects our news.
“There is no question that financially — economically — [journalism is] under pressure,” he said. “I think there was some hope, that was a little bit naive, that if billionaires bought these companies, some of these newspapers, that that would be the better way. And then we learned that some of these billionaires themselves have business interests that are much larger than the newspaper. So see L.A. Times, see Washington Post. We have corporate interests that own journalism, you know, CBS and so on, and what they have at stake in that regard, in terms of other entanglements with the politicians, is much bigger than anything relating to their newspaper or journalism or television business. So we are definitely under threat.”
This highlights one of the premier issues of our current journalistic landscape. Engelberg’s mention of CBS is notable due to the fact their parent company, Paramount, was recently taken to court by President Donald Trump for his dislike of the way they edited an interview with him for 60 Minutes. Rather than going through the courts, however, Paramount settled out of court, agreeing to pay all of the Trump administration’s legal fees, plus contribute a hefty donation to the yet-to-be-built Donald J. Trump Presidential Library. This donation alongside the legal fees came out to $16 million.
Many lawyers have claimed it should have been easy for Paramount to win, thanks to the absence of misinformation in the piece alongside their First Amendment rights to edit news stories as they see appropriate, adhering to journalistic standards of ethics. More dire still, the settlement included a stipulation that allows all future presidential candidates to receive a written transcript of upcoming “60 Minutes” episodes before they come out.
Engelberg isn’t blowing any smoke; he is talking about real journalistic issues facing our nation in this turbulent time. However, he assured his audience this isn’t anything new. “You know, when World War I broke out, there was actually some anti-war sentiment, and Congress and the president were very upset by this. They passed a law saying it was a crime to stand up and speak against the World War I draft.”
Engelberg then told the story of Eugene V. Debs, a socialist presidential candidate who spoke out against the war despite these rules, and was arrested for it. This story highlights that these problems aren’t new, but also that resistance has always and will always be an option.
Asked to describe the state of independent journalism in the modern age, Engelberg couldn’t help but highlight the rebellion and fierce independence necessary for being a “good American.” What is the future of independent journalism? We can’t be sure. But what we can be sure of is this: there will always be journalists; there will always be people who care; and there will always be opportunities to speak out against corruption, hate and those who wish to silence the masses.
Aspen Public Radio will be airing the full talk on Sunday, July 27.