I've been in the news business for 42 years.
It's all I ever wanted to do because I believe free and honest news media are critical to the preservation of a free society.
Our Founding Fathers believed that, too.
One of the most amazing things about the insight and discernment of our founders is that they understood this intuitively – that a free press is essential to a free society.
What do I mean they knew it intuitively? It's an under-appreciated aspect of the foresight and inspired genius of the founders that they recognized this fact by including special constitutional protections for the press for the first and only time in history. They did this when the press was in its infancy. Though I've never heard anyone else state it like this, the whole concept of a free press was actually birthed in colonial America.
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This hit me some years ago when I was writing a book about the New Media revolution of the 21st century from my personal perspective as the founder of the first independent online news-gathering company and as someone who had spent 20 years working in the so-called mainstream media, much of that time running daily newspapers in major markets. I wanted to include a chapter about the history of the free press in my autobiographical book, "Stop the Presses!"
What I learned in the process of my research was just how remarkably young this institution is – as young as the American experiment in self-government. The free press was birthed and incubated in colonial America. No one taught me that in journalism school. And I've never heard another journalist, or anyone else, make the point.
Why did our founders include special First Amendment protections for an institution so young? Because they saw the press, even in its early form in the 18th century, as another important check and balance on government. They saw it as a potential watchdog on government and an institution that could foster a more well-informed populace. It was another check and balance on government power. Think of it also as another foundation wall in our nation's self-governing culture – a wall to keep the government within its constitutional restrictions.
And since most educated people of means in 18th century America had a biblical worldview, it's no wonder that the press institutions that emerged back then were almost entirely Christian – and that includes the New York Times, which was founded as, believe it or not, a crusading anti-abortion newspaper!
There were still multiple competing overtly Christian newspapers in more than 100 cities in the 19th century. Christians created a Christian culture by leading in all the major cultural institutions, including the foundations, the schools and academia. Needless to say, no one learns this stuff in college anymore – and certainly not in journalism school.
But, as I'm sure everyone reading this column understands, the press no longer serves as a vital watchdog on government. In fact, instead it has become a vital pillar of what we accurately refer to as "the Deep State." It is a cheerleader, essentially, for Government as God. It has become an institution that promotes the idea that government should not be limited in its power – not at all! Let me put that another way: The institution of the corporate press in America promotes UNLIMITED GOVERNMENT.
Think about that. Those who do not support the Constitution's restrictions on government power actually believe in unlimited government. That's something supporters of the Constitution should emphasize more.
The supporters of unlimited government have been winning the day for decades, effectively making government the highest authority in the life of America, not through legislation but through a gradual cultural revolution – with Christians on the sidelines … observers … sometimes complainers … for the most part, non-participants.
Let me tell you why I give you this background. There's a crisis in the media today that will have a profound impact on the direction of the country and the world for decades to come. You need to know about it. Let me bring it home to you with just one microcosmic example.
It can best be understood by looking at the very predictable coming transformation of Fox News.
Eight years ago I predicted in writing that Fox News, by far the most successful news organization in America – highest ratings, biggest profit margin – would soon abandon everything that helped it achieve those milestones. I explained that the formula it used was devised and executed by two men, neither of them believers, who would not be around much longer – Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes.
As you know, Roger Ailes was let go by Fox News months ago, and he died last week. Murdoch, meanwhile, has begun handing over the reins of power at Fox News to his children.
These two men understood that a news presentation that broke out of that mold of worshiping at the feet of the god of government, like much of the rest of the press did and does, could have immensely higher ratings and bigger profits. That was their motivation.
In fact, they were so right that Fox News today commands higher profits than all of the following COMBINED – ABC News, NBC News, CBS News and CNN. Can you believe that? It's true. You can throw in the New York Times, which reported this astonishing fact several years ago.
Yet, with Roger Ailes gone and the semi-retirement of Rupert Murdoch in place, that reality of higher ratings and higher profits is not going to stop the slow and gradual march by Fox News away from the simple formula that made it so successful and toward becoming a virtual clone of CNN. In other words, the profit motive alone will not save the institution of a free and vibrant press.
Why?
Because the Murdoch children who are taking over at Fox News are personally embarrassed by what their father created with Ailes. They mingle with the media and corporate elite that run ABC, CBC, NBC and CNN, and how they are treated at Manhattan cocktail parties is more important to them than ratings and profits.
Thus, they are beginning to dismantle the success formula at Fox – everything that has made it appealing to you as an alternative news source.
Look, I know Fox has never shared our worldview. But it offered something we could appreciate – an alternative news presentation, voices that reflected some of our values, more "fair and balanced" reporting and some personality-driven shows that had something to offer Main Street America.
There are still some great shows at Fox – Tucker Carlson, Hannity, Judge Jeanine, Cavuto, Dobbs, etc.
But it's all going to go soon – within the next three to five years. You can take that to the bank.
Fox will become indistinguishable from CNN within that short period of time. The process is already underway.
What will that one example mean to America? How will that impact future elections? How will that change the political culture? And this is happening while the other cultural institutions – the foundation walls of a self-governing society – are also fast crumbling.
With Republicans now in charge of both houses of Congress and the White House, we can clearly see how the media culture represents something more powerful in our society than even another branch of government. That media culture is relentless, driven and completely in harmony with the Deep State status quo, a power completely unaccountable to the people or the Constitution.
What's the solution?
I am not sure I know.
I am presenting this brief overview to you today not because I have any sweeping solutions to offer, not because I have a blueprint drafted. I am busy maintaining and growing what my wife and I created 20 years ago this month – a free press for a free society. We can't do it alone.
I've been warning America for more than 30 years about the left's march through the key cultural institutions and how it would inevitably lead to dominating political power. That's because the culture is the Ho Chi Minh trail to political power. It doesn't just grow out of the barrel of a gun, as Mao said. It grows out of domination of the schools, academia, the media, the entertainment industry, etc.
As I get older, I spend more time thinking about my kids, my grandchildren and America's future. We're losing our country. Donald Trump may be a blessing in the fight to restore it, but we can't leave it up to him and a Republican Congress.
Bottom line: We are headed into a crisis that will result in the stifling of all our voices, the marginalization of our worldview and the virtual criminalization of our ideas in the next few years if we do nothing. And complaining is not enough. This is not hyperbole. This is not exaggeration. This is not conspiracy theory. And I think most of you can probably see the foreshadowing of this imminent threat for yourselves.
As they began their long march through the key cultural institutions, the secular left knew their action would eventually bring all the levers of power under their control. When do we begin recognizing we must be engaged in a similar march?
But we are running out of time.
Nehemiah was faced with a similar situation while in exile. He heard reports of the sad condition of the walls of Jerusalem, and he set out to rebuild them.
Likewise, believers today have a mandate to rebuild the walls of our culture, or it won't matter in a short time what the actual words of our inspired Constitution say.
With that said, I welcome your thoughts, questions and prayers about what we can do, should do and must do to start rebuilding those walls – like Nehemiah, with a sword in one hand and a hammer in the other.
Media wishing to interview Joseph Farah, please contact [email protected].
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