The Confusion of the News

    It seems lately that too many of the lawyers on television aren't necessarily the best examples of the profession.  You may have asked yourself why any honest person would want to be a lawyer.  To counter some of the impressions those lawyers may have given you, let me begin with a quote from Abraham Lincoln:  "Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by every American mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles in her lap--let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges;  let it be written in Primers, spelling books, and in almanacs, let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice."  Obviously, Lincoln saw the need to educate all Americans of the meaning and importance of our laws.

Quoting Lincoln again:  "Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others."

Today, on television and the internet there are lawyers who purport to express their legal opinions, and there are non-lawyers who also express their opinions about the law, and there are those who express their opinions as if it were the law...  There are also those who are lawyers that  intentionally misrepresent the law.  What is a person to do in such a world of information and misinformation?

Lincoln's advice that all Americans learn to revere our laws and know what they say so we are less easily hood-winked is great advice.  I will also add some excellent advice from Barbara Jordan: "It is reason, and not passion, which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decisions."  

I will add my own opinion about those whom I generally disregard.  Those who shout, who call others names. who refuse to listen to anyone else's ideas are unlikely to gain my respect.  It seems to me that if you have a good idea to share, the best way to do that is a respectful conversation.

Should you judge lawyers by the clients they represent?  Sometimes, but not necessarily.  If ethical lawyers represented only the innocent, we would no longer be able to uphold our American belief that those accused are to be considered innocent until found guilty.  People would quickly learn who represented the good guys and who represented the bad guys, and the presumption of innocence would mean nothing!  

Just as lawyers gain reputations through their conduct, so also do news reporters.  Those of you old enough may remember the CBS evening news moderator, so widely respected that he was often referred to as "Uncle Walter."  In that era of television reporting, it was expected that the news would be delivered without bias, well checked before it was aired.  

Today the goal seems to be post "Breaking News" first, with less emphasis on accuracy and getting the full content.  That race to get the news first inevitably results in errors and incomplete information.  Just as bad, and maybe worse, is the delivery of  'news' by commentators who make no apology for their bias.  There is a difference between reporting the news and commenting an opinion. 

Dole Institute, copyright Lyn Fenwick

Just as reporters are expected to gather accurate information and report that, lawyers also have ethical requirements.  I have explained why guilty defendants deserve reputable lawyers, and now I will explain the importance for lawyers to follow ethical rules.  Lawyers may not "engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation," nor "engage in conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice." American Bar Association/Rules of Misconduct

Recently the misconduct of lawyers has been in the news, and unfortunately more such news is likely.  Although a lawyer must defend his client, that does not mean the lawyer may ignore his own responsibilities.  In representing a client, a lawyer cannot "commit a criminal act that reflects adversely on the lawyer's honesty, trust worthiness, or fitness as a lawyer in other respects."  ABA Rules of Misconduct

Civics is no longer taught in many high schools.  It is certainly not "breathed by every American mother [into] her lisping babe" as Lincoln urged.  Many, if not most, Americans have not read the Constitution, nor do they understand the responsibilities of lawyers.  Perhaps in coming days, the brief information in this blog will be helpful in understanding current events.

Who Told You That?

Edward R. Morrow, W.W. II Correspondent

Am I the only one who remembers coming home from school with some bit of information I had learned from a classmate, and when I repeated what I had been told, my parent would say, "Who told you that?!"  It was good training...especially for a future lawyer and author.  An appropriate balance of skepticism is good for all of us.

It is what our founding fathers understood when they recognized the need for a free press in order for a democracy to survive.  But let me return to my childhood memories.  Sometimes the source of my information wasn't very accurate.  Sometimes it was a bit of misinformation given intentionally to fool me.  Sometimes it was honestly given by someone mistaken.  Sometimes it came from a trust-worthy source.  I find that life is still like that.  As the old saying goes, "Consider the Source."

Nellie Bly

When I am standing in the grocery store line and I see a tabloid with a story about some movie star and his alleged romances, do I assume the headlines are true?  No!  Might they be?  Maybe.  If we know that certain tabloids exaggerate and distort the truth, why are they allowed to continue publishing lies and misrepresentations?  Because we have decided censorship is a more dangerous risk to society than the likelihood that educated, intelligent people will believe utter nonsense.  The legal remedy is for the person who is slandered to take action against the newspaper, but a more obvious remedy is the public's responsibility to stop buying tabloids that they know are publishing nonsense.  Reputable newspapers employing professional reporters and writers to bring Americans the news are facing declining subscriptions, while tabloids who titillate rather than investigate seem to be surviving.  Shouldn't we remember what our parents taught us and ask, "Who told you that?" and  "Consider the source!"

Professional news reporters work hard to check their sources, seek corroboration of multiple sources, and, as the Code of Ethics of the American Society of Newspaper Editors says:  "Thus journalism demands of its practitioners not only industry and knowledge but also the pursuit of a standard of integrity proportionate to the journalist's singular obligation.  (See prior 2 weeks' blogs below, if you missed them.)

Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy.  Walter Cronkite

Detroit Free Press Front Page

Last week I mentioned that even in Isaac Werner's time, the lengths to which news gathers would go to document a story was often impressive.  Nellie Bly (1864-1922) was the pen name of an American journalist named Elizabeth Jane Cochran.  In 1887, in order to investigate reports of brutality and neglect of women confined to a Lunatic Asylum, she faked her own insanity to gain admission.  Once inside, she was given spoiled food and filthy water, was tied with rope to other patients, was exposed to frigid bathwater, rats and abusive nurses along with the other women.  She even discovered women who were locked in the asylum despite being as sane as she was.  Her report, not only published in the newspaper but later as the book Ten Days in a Mad House, exposed those abuses, and that brave investigative reporter and her newspaper brought about changes.  

Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.  Benjamin Franklin

William G. Giggart (1947-2001) was the son of an American officer stationed in Germany at the time of his birth.  He began his own career as a commercial photographer, but his interest in news led him to photojournalism in 1985, and he covered international events in such places as Israel, Northern Ireland, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall.  Therefore, it is not surprising that he was taking street-view photographs at the World Trade Center's North Tower when it collapsed.  When his remains were discovered in the debris, a bag containing his cameras and a flash card with his last photographs were beside him.  His photographs document the final moments of that event.  Pictures by Giggart and other photographers who took the images on many front pages and television broadcasts allowed all Americans to see what devastation had been done in New York City that day.

Our liberty depends on freedom of the press.  Thomas Jefferson

James Foley, Photo: Nicole Tung

James Foley (1973-2014) was the oldest of five children, born in New Hampshire.  He graduated from Marquette University, from the MFA Program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.  He began his career as a teacher but changed to pursue journalism, and that decision took him to Afghanistan and Libya, where he witnessed the killing of fellow photojournalist Anton Hammerl.  He was himself held prisoner with three others for 44 days.  Although he returned home, his belief that "front line journalism is important [without which] we can't tell the world how bad it might be," led him to return to cover the Syrian Civil War.  He was captured and beheaded by ISIL.  His mother posted the following:  "We have never been prouder of our son Jim. He gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people."

Wherever despotism abounds, the sources of public information are the first to be brought under its control.  Where ever the cause of liberty is making its way, one of its highest accomplishments is the guarantee of the freedom of the press.  Calvin Coolidge

Watching news reporters jostle and shout questions at politicians and others often seems like an undignified and offensive exercise of freedom, but as Justice Hugo Black said, "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.  Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government."

Civilian Casualties from W.W. I

The Statistics Portal represents itself as assembling statistics and studies from more than 22,500 sources, and their site includes a chart showing the number of journalists killed worldwide from 1995-2017.  It should be understood that the chart does not indicate the cause of death, and many journalists are serving in very dangerous parts of the world.  However, it is worth recognizing that however they died, they were there doing the job of collecting news.  A sampling at five year intervals shows 64 deaths in 1995, 32 in 2000, 64 in 2005, 58 in 2010, 81 in 2015, and 50 in the final year of the chart.  The lowest figure was 23 in 1998, and the highest figures were 85 in 2006, 88 in 2007, and 87 in 2012.  Like James Foley, these news gathers put their lives in harms way so that we could know what was going on in the world.  These statistics do not tell us their names, their ages, nor their gender, and even if we cannot know why they chose to do what they did, we can respect them for being our eyes to world events.  

Freedom of conscience, of education, of speech, of assembly are among the very fundamentals of democracy and all of them would be nullified should freedom of the press ever be successfully challenged.  Franklin D. Roosevelt

Remember, you can enlarge the images by clicking on them.

Libraries Make the Difference!

Reading Oz in Macksville Grade School Library

Whatever the cost of our libraries the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.  --Walter Cronkite

Isaac B. Werner left family behind to build a new life in the West, and as a young druggist he prioritized the acquisition of a fine library at the top of his list for spending saved cash.  When he decided to move further west to claim a homestead and timber claim in Kansas, he managed to find a way to ship his impressive library to his prairie home. 

His collection of books included a wide range of subjects, including law, penmanship, history, art, literature, biography, travel, politics, elocution, grammar, medicine, and other topics.  (See "Isaac's Library," 2/2/2012; "Who Reads Shakespeare," 5/30/2013; and "Art in Isaac's Life," 1/22/2014, in the blog archives.)  Isaac was a serious reader.  As I have indicated in other blogs, I attempted to purchase some of the titles Isaac had owned, buying the oldest editions I could find to better represent the editions he owned.  The scholarly content of most of the books he collected stand as evidence that he was a sincere autodidact.  See "Isaac, the Autodidact," 11-13-2014 in the Blog Archives.

Summer program in Macksville City Library

"...[W]hen a library is open, no matter its size or shape, democracy is open too."  --Bill Moyers

One of Isaac's ideas was to establish a library in the County Seat of St. John, where farmers and populists could go to study.  His local Farmer's Alliance did establish a library in the Emerson School where they met.  Isaac built the book cupboard, and members, strapped for cash as they were, voted an assessment to purchase books.  Much of the library was gifted by Isaac from his own collection, however.

Today we are fortunate to have access to books, whether we are rich or poor.  Schools have libraries, and in Isaac's old community there are fine public libraries in St. John, Pratt, Stafford, and even the small town of Macksville.

"The Public Library is...at once an ode to the glory of our most democratic institutions and a culturally necessary prompt to defend them like we would defend our freedom to live, learn, and be--a freedom to which the library is our highest celebration."  --Maria Popova

Used book store in Philadelphia

Today we are also fortunate to have easy access to books through the internet, whether we are ordering books for our own libraries or reading e-books or excerpts available online.  What is less available online, however, is the guidance of librarians.  

"I see them as healers and magicians.  Librarians can tease out of inarticulate individuals enough information about what they are after to lead them onto the path of connection.  They are trail guides through the forest of shelves and aisles--you turn a person loose who has limited skills, and he'll be walloped by the branches.  But librarians match up readers with the right books."  --Anne Lamott

Statistics show that fewer people read books today, finding their entertainment and information elsewhere, and libraries are trying to adapt.  Not only are computers a part of modern libraries but also objects (like cake pans) may be checked out.  DVD rentals seemed to be an important part of one local library's service to the community during a recent visit that I made.

"The truth is libraries are raucous clubhouses for free speech, controversy and community."  --Paula Poundstone

The ability to check out unconventional things at the local library may not seem to serve the ideals expressed in the foregoing quotes, but a library containing the most incredible books ever written serves no purpose unless people come to the library to read those books.  When Laura Bush said, "I have found the most valuable thing in my wallet is my library card," I doubt that she was referring to the ability to check out things other than books.  Yet, perhaps the visitor that comes for a cake pan will leave with an armload of cookbooks, or the child that checks out a movie will discover books about that historic period or movie theme--especially if the librarian is a good "trail guide" with time to direct the visitor to appealing books.

Take a book/Leave a book in Pratt, KS

For Norman Cousins, "A library is the delivery room for the birth of ideas, a place where history comes to life."  Sadly, no ideas will be born if the library does not attract readers.  Imagine the excitement of children attending the country schools of Isaac's community in the late 1800s if they entered any one of the public libraries today's residents enjoy.

Libba Bray expresses the potential that many of us have come to take for granted:  "The library card is a passport to wonders and miracles, glimpses into other lives, religions, experiences, the hopes and dreams and striving of ALL human beings, and it is this passport that opens our eyes and hearts to the world beyond our front doors, that is one of our best hopes against tyranny, xenophobia, hopelessness, despair, anarchy, and ignorance..."

Isaac and his neighbors who settled the Kansas prairie knew that.

(P.S. for Pratt area residents:  After several months of renovations the Pratt Library is planning to reopen for adult and teen sections on October 24th.  The library will be closed Oct. 17-22 to move the book collection into the new locations. That will accomplish Phase I and II, with Phase III scheduled for the end of the year.)