Par Keith Robinson

Les journalistes doivent continuer à défier agressivement l'autorité dans le gouvernement quoique le public ne tienne pas les médias de nouvelles à un tel égard élevé comme il par le passé, le rédacteur des Etats-Unis jeudi aujourd'hui.

Ken Paulson a dit que les auteurs de la constitution ont garanti une pression libre « qui prendrait un stand pour la liberté et la justice, et qui la mission n'a pas changée. »

« Ils nous ont donné ce travail, » jeudi par Paulson à une conférence sur l'importance d'un gouvernement ouvert. Les « gens parlent souvent de la pression, et ils disent le `qui vous a nommé ?' Bien, Jefferson, Madison et les garçons, vraiment. Est c'assez bon ? »

Paulson spoke to an audience of journalists, lawyers and other members of the public at the forum sponsored by the Indiana Coalition of Open Government, the Hoosier State Press Association and the Indiana State Bar Association.

He said monitoring government officials requires journalists to ask “tough questions, sometimes rude questions, sometimes leading questions.”

“And we have that attitude whether you’re Republican, Libertarian, Democrat — whatever you happen to be,” he said. “We’ll ask you the same tough questions because that’s our job.”

Paulson said journalists are no longer depicted in a heroic way, as they were in comic books and movies decades ago, when Superman had a secret identity as a newspaper reporter, Spider-Man as a photographer and the Green Hornet as a newspaper publisher.

He said he often seeks inspiration from the 1952 movie “Deadline U.S.A.,” in which Humphrey Bogart plays the managing editor of a New York newspaper who takes on the mob. He also has a poster of the movie on his wall at work.

“The real heroes of American journalism are, of course, not fictional,” he said. “They are the men and women who use freedom of the press to make a real difference in American society and make a difference for democracy.”

Paulson said recent surveys indicate erosion of the public’s support of free speech, especially that which could be considered offensive to some.

“That boggles my mind because clearly these people forget who Martin Luther King was and what he did,” Paulson said. “In this country, you do not accomplish meaningful social change by engaging in pleasantries with those you disagree with or just talking to people who agree with you. Sometimes you’ve got to get in the face of people and say ‘This is wrong; this has got to stop.’

“And yet somehow Americans think it’s much better for us all to … scale back at bit on free speech.”

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