Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the work that reporters do as members of a free and independent press is vital to our country and to our communities. It is why, last week, in an unprecedented action, nearly 300 newspapers all over the country--a dozen or so in my State--came together to stand up for the free press and defend the First Amendment. There were 300 newspapers that wrote editorials--all independently written, of course, with all different takes on this--to advocate for a free press and to defend the First Amendment. The Chagrin Valley Times, which is not far from where I live in Northeast Ohio, wrote: We are indeed your lens into your community. We are not your enemy. Clearly, this was a takeoff on the President's comments that the media are the enemies of the people. The Athens NEWS, from Southeast Ohio, wrote: ``Good reporting often succeeds in righting wrongs and making things better for people.'' The Akron Beacon Journal, one of the great newspapers in this State, wrote: Power . . . belongs to the people. The press thus received extraordinary protection because of its capacity to inform readers and check the powerful. It is shameful that journalists have to defend their First Amendment rights, our First Amendment rights, our Nation's First Amendment rights just so they can do their jobs. As these community papers show us, nothing could be further from the truth.…”