WorldTribune, June 28, 2026 250 Years of Freedom
Commentary by Donald Kirk
An Octogenarian like the president of the United States, Donald Kirk is the rare American journalist who has spent most of his career as a foreign correspondent, primarily in East Asia. A member of the Advisory Board of Free Press Foundation, he currently files articles daily from Seoul and Washington, DC. to multiple publications.
Nothing is more important in the defense of freedom than a truly free press.
Throughout American history, the press has alternately been rambunctious, serious, informative, misleading, entertaining and ridiculous.
Politicians of all stripes, colors and hues have alternated between rage and delight over the musings of commentators from left to right and points in between. No way is everyone happy over whatever’s reported in newspapers, on the airwaves, via the internet and probably a few other ways.
As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of America, we have to be supremely grateful that freedom of the press, often defied, always in danger, somehow survives as a bedrock of our democracy. As readers, we often cannot understand or appreciate attacks ranging from radical to reactionary and every other conceivable stance, but we should never doubt the right to report and comment freely.
Against constant calls for censorship or at least for adopting innumerable ways for pressuring the media, we can only be grateful for the freedom we have to flick the dial to another channel, to put down one newspaper or magazine and pick up another, to surf the internet from one insufferable commentator to another. If we can’t find anyone with whom we agree or sympathize or support, at least we’re exposed to a wide range of views.
Our free press, though, is constantly in jeopardy, in danger of succumbing to pressure from owners, from foreign governments, from power-mongers at all levels of our own government. Politicians, climbing the heights and eventually in authority, real or imagined, just can’t stand articles criticizing them for all their failures, weaknesses, their corruption and betrayal of America’s hard-fought freedoms. Our free press stands as a growling watchdog, ready to bark and on occasion to bite the arrogant and ignorant idiots who all too often rise to power.
It would be ridiculous to be more specific and select the good and bad guys. Our media does that all the time, with decidedly mixed results. The news as reported in print, on the air and online may be biased and inaccurate. In a truly free press, voices will report opposing views in tones of moral indignation and outrage, skepticism and doubt, or maybe simple reason supported by facts.
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Remember too the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin as he held sway over the Soviet Union, taking over the countries of eastern Europe and central Asia. Xi Jinping, inheritor of the dictatorship founded by Mao Zedong, rules as the dictator of China, repressing his foes while expanding Chinese power from the Indo-Pacific to the middle east and Africa. |
As readers, we’re constantly upset by the nonsense of which we accuse those with whom we disagree. Often, we find it simpler to focus on commentaries with which we have no argument. It’s easy to assume that disagreements are more bitter now than ever, but let us not lose sight of the protests against American involvement in the Vietnam War all those years ago. And let’s remember, too, the divisions between right and left when Senator Joseph McCarthy was carrying on against Communists in high places. “McCarthyism” is now a watchword for levelling false charges against leftist adversaries.
In the great political drama that we now see before us, we need to be aware of how much our freedom of press really means to us. Think of the non-existence of such freedom in most other countries, ranging from China and North Korea to middle eastern dictatorships to African nations often ruled by entrenched dictators who have been in power for decades.
Go back to the 1930s and think of the cruel repression of freedom, notably a free press, in Germany and Japan. Had a free press survived as Hitler was imposing absolute dictatorship and then ordering his forces into all the countries of Europe, we may be sure that he would not have survived as a menace to the freedom of the world. Remember too the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin as he held sway over the Soviet Union, taking over the countries of eastern Europe and central Asia. Xi Jinping, inheritor of the dictatorship founded by Mao Zedong, rules as the dictator of China, repressing his foes while expanding Chinese power from the Indo-Pacific to the middle east and Africa.
No political system is more repressive than that of North Korea, ruled by the Kim dynasty from the moment the Soviet Union implanted Kim Il-Sung as the dictator of the Communist North in 1945. Now North Korea is in the hands of Kim’s grandson, Kim Jong-Un, eager to profit off the war in Ukraine by providing arms and men in support of Russian forces under the thumb of the Russian dictator, Vladimir Putin.
Let us venerate freedom of speech, as embodied in our free press, thanking the writers and signatories of our constitution for their foresight in guaranteeing the freedom needed for a democracy to flourish. We may find the differing opinions of influencers and commentators, some of them quite well known, not only absurd but maddening. Let us, however, not only appreciate but enjoy the incredible freedom bequeathed to us by the nation’s founders.
