The Post

In the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people.  —  New York Times v. United States, 403 U.S. 713 (1971), Black, J., concurring.

I don’t commonly begin a blog post with a legal citation.  But Justice Black’s quote, from his concurring opinion in New York Times v. United States, expresses my thoughts about the cries of “fake news” that emanate from the Oval  Office these days.

I saw an incredible movie last weekend, Steven Spielberg’s newest masterpiece, The Post.  When people think of the Pentagon Papers, what comes to mind is Daniel Ellsberg and The New York Times.  Ellsberg stole 7,000 pages of classified documents detailing the history of the Vietnam war, and shared the report with The New York Times, which chose to publish the classified documents.

What is often forgotten, though, is that after the first article was printed, the government obtained an injunction preventing the Times from continuing to publish the classified documents. At that point, the Washington Post obtained some of the documents, and published them.   The government failed to obtain an injunction against the Post.  As a result of these inconsistent rulings, the two cases were fast tracked to the US Supreme Court, which permitted both papers to continue to publish the story.

Spielberg’s movie focuses on the Post, how it obtained the documents, and the discussion and debate as to whether to risk jail to publish the story.  Meryl Streep as the paper’s owner Kathryn Graham and Tom Hanks as the editor in chief give amazing performances.  And the debate is one we could be having today.  The power of the press, the people’s right to know what their government is doing versus the government’s attempt to keep someone from publishing material that portrays the White House in negative terms, didn’t WW have that debate again just recently?  (Remind me to pick up my copy of Fire and Fury ...)

Spoiler alert...

At the end of the movie, Streep’s character says something to the effect of “I hope I don’t have to make that kind of decision again.”

And my first thought was “Didn’t Woodward and Bernstein Work for the Post?”

And sure enough, the next scene shows a security guard discovering a burglary at the DNC headquarters at The Watergate Hotel ...

Yes, this is a “must-see” for anyone who loves American History, and for anyone who believes in the First Amendment and the power of the press.