Speaking Truth To Power… Where Has It Gone?

By Deacon Mike Manno 

(The Wanderer) – Those who know me well know that long before I became a lawyer and long before I became a deacon, I was a newspaper editor and reporter. Journalism was the profession I chose. I majored in it at college and many of the lessons learned there have stuck with me over the years.

Journalism in the United States has a long and, until recently, honorable history. It is a big part of the story of how liberty was nurtured through Colonial times to the present, and the men and women who have etched their names in its historic canons are truly patriotic heroes in their own right. But alas, if things don’t turn around, all of this, like much of our civilization, may just be points in a distant past.

But there was a time….

In 1693 a man named William Bradford picked up his printing business in Philadelphia and moved it to New York where he became the Royal Printer and ultimately established a newspaper there, The New York Gazette, in 1725. He also hired a young impoverished German immigrant boy as an apprentice, John Peter Zenger.

Ultimately, after his apprenticeship had ended, Zenger bought his own printing machine and started his own paper, The New York Weekly Journal.
Things started getting a little rocky on the local political scene. The tyrannical royal governor, William Cosby, fired Chief Justice Lewis Morris. Zenger supported the faction that objected to Morris’ termination and said so, oftentimes in critical word-fables that unmistakably referred to Cosby and Morris’ successor, James DeLancey. The war of words continued to grow, so much so that Cosby and DeLancey sought to silence Zenger.

Twice the grand jury refused to indict Zenger on charges of seditious libel against the crown. Finally, Cosby issued a warrant for Zenger’s arrest on the seditious libel charges. He was immediately arrested and thrown in jail. The two lawyers who were assisting Zenger were disbarred by Cosby.

Zenger, while in jail, refused bail and continued to publish his paper and talk to his readers through a little “hole in the door” of his cell.

Trial for Zenger opened on August 4, 1735. Zenger’s friends had persuaded the most eminent attorney of the colonies, Andrew Hamilton of Philadelphia, to come to New York to defend him. He did and surprised the court by admitting that the statements made against the governor were made by Zenger and the Weekly Journal, but that they were true.

Under British law at the time, truth was no defense to a charge of libel. In fact, if truth was presented it was considered to be an aggravating factor. Several times Hamilton raised the issue only to be told by DeLancey that he could not make that argument: “You cannot be admitted, Mr. Hamilton, to give the truth of a libel in evidence. . . . You are not to be permitted to argue against the opinion of the Court.”

Hamilton then turned his back to the chief judge and argued directly to the jury: “Gentlemen of the jury, it is to you we must now appeal.” He appealed to the jurors’ own witness to the statements made, he denounced the tyranny of the governor’s power.

After he finished, DeLancey instructed the jury and turned the case over to it. Ten minutes later the jury returned: Not guilty. A powerful statement for truth, liberty, and freedom of the press.

John Peter Zenger lived and ran the Weekly Journal until his death in 1746, and his wife and his son continued the paper until it closed in 1757.

So why do I tell you this story today? It’s simple. In today’s society there are too many Governor Cosbys and two few John Peter Zengers. We only need to look back a few weeks to see an independent journalist taking heat for the things he reported.

Matt Taibbi was one of several journalists Elon Musk invited to review Twitter files and report on what he found, and he and his colleagues found a lot: government involvement in stifling press freedom. He got a lot of criticism for that and was asked to testify before a House committee. Naturally, what he was going to testify to was — to those in charge — as unwanted as the drunk uncle at the Christmas party.

Taibbi did testify. On the same day his home was visited by an IRS agent, and after his testimony the ranking Democrat member of the committee, Stacey Plaskett, suggested that Taibbi should be jailed for a minor mistake he made in confusing a governmental agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), with the Center for Internet Security (CIS), a mistake he quickly corrected. Others chimed in: He should be charged with contempt and perjury.

The problem I have with the treatment of Taibbi isn’t so much the tyrannical scare tactics of the woefully deluded Democrats, but the reaction of his own colleagues. You would think that legitimate journalists and their outlets would have come to Taibbi’s aid. Almost none did.

I know it was once my chosen profession, but I’m ashamed to say there’s hardly a John Peter Zenger among us today. They have no backbone, no loyalty to the truth, and no honesty among them.

Today this nation is a ship floundering. The big question for our time is whether or not we have taken passage on a modern Titanic; has the ship sunk too low to save? Or is it time to call out the life boats? Hopefully the ship will ultimately right itself, but if it doesn’t, as we listen to the band play “Nearer, My God to Thee” we can start to count on all the things that caused our failure: Socialism, weak politicians interested only in power, an encouraged loss of morality among the people, the breakup of the family, as well as a complete indifference to true education because it does not serve the pleasure of the ruling elites.

But on the top of my list will be those who allowed it all to happen: Journalists who failed to warn us and speak truth to power about the approaching iceberg.

(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him every weekend on Faith On Trial or podcast at https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/)