War on 'mainstream media' menaces democracy

Defying President Lyndon Johnson's administration in 1968, legendary CBS journalist Walter Cronkite had the courage to tell the truth about America's disastrous war in Vietnam. /CBS News video

Nothing is more patriotic than speaking truth in the face of power.

Journalists in the so-called mainstream media are not inclined to defend themselves against misguided assaults on their integrity and commitment to telling the truth, even when their reputations and lives are under threat.

With powerful politicians peddling alternative facts, these are dark days for the free press, which has served as a bulwark of democracy in the United States for more than two centuries. The professionals who staff newsrooms at America's best news media organizations such as The New York Times need to accept that producing high-quality editorial content is no longer sufficient to ensure continuation their pivotal role in American society.

When the president of the United States declares war on the news media, journalists have a patriotic duty to defend themselves. When President Trump and his sycophantic supporters attack members of the press, it is not just journalists who are under siege; one of the pillars on which democracy stands is under assault.

When I decided to pursue a journalism career more than two decades ago, my grandest aspiration was to work at CBS News, The New York Times, The Washington Post or Time Inc., David Halberstam's powers that be. My dream came true on a modest scale in the first week of April 2013, when I started working weekends as a digital media producer at WBZ, the CBS News affiliate in Boston.

A couple of days after joining the WBZ staff, terrorists detonated two bombs along the route of the Boston Marathon. On television, radio and online, WBZ journalists provided world-class coverage of the heinous crime and the manhunt for the perpetrators that followed. I witnessed firsthand the professionalism and dedication of journalists employed in one of the bastions of the "mainstream media."

On April 19, 2013, WBZ was the first news media organization to broadcast live video of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the boat where he had taken refuge after a shootout with police in Watertown, Mass./ Massachusetts State Police image

Despite my devotion to journalism, I know even the best U.S. news media organization are far from perfect.

In addition to participating in coverage of the Marathon bombings, one of my most memorable experiences at WBZ was having lunch in the station's cafeteria with Jack Williams. The veteran newsman told me about how CBS had treated his friend, Walter Cronkite, at the end of his career.

Cronkite was still "the most trusted man in America" when CBS replaced him as anchor of the evening news with Dan Rather. As he recounted the succession story, Williams could barely control his disgust. Cronkite had plenty of journalistic "life in his tank" when CBS executives forced him into retirement, Williams told me.

Here is the key fact about the best news media organizations: for every misstep that reputable journalists make, there are thousands of examples of high-quality information provided to the American people.

Here are just a few examples of courageous and groundbreaking journalism generated at news organizations that Trump and his supporters are gleefully tarring as the "dishonest mainstream media" in America:

In 1954, CBS News icon Edward R. Murrow challenges Red Scare demagogue Sen. Joseph McCarthy. /CBS News video

In 1963, Eric Sevareid of CBS News interviews "Silent Sprint" author Rachel Carson for a CBS Reports documentary. Under pressure from the industrial chemical industry, three of the documentary's five commercial sponsors withdrew from the broadcast about Carson's book, which exposed the dangers of pesticides and revolutionized humanity's views of the environment. CBS aired the documentary despite the financial blow. /CBS image via Getty Images

In June 1971, Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham and the newspaper's editor, Ben Bradlee, are elated as they depart U.S. District Court after a federal judge upheld their right to continue publishing the Pentagon Papers. The documents, which had been obtained from whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, exposed years of U.S. government deception about the war in Vietnam. /AP photo

Bradlee talks with reporters Bob Woodward, left, and Carl Bernstein in the Washington Post newsroom. Woodward and Bernstein exposed a criminal conspiracy in the White House that ultimately led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974. /Image via Outside the Beltway

In 1975, New York Times photo journalist Dith Pran and correspondent Sydney Schanberg stayed in Cambodia when other members of the news media fled the country's Khmer Rouge reign of terror. Both men were captured and Pran endured several years in brutal work camps. After Schanberg escaped, he earned a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Cambodian genocide. /New York Times-AFP image

After publishing 600 stories in 2002 about sexual abuse perpetrated by priests, The Boston Globe was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. The Globe's coverage included the revelation that the Archdiocese of Boston's leader, Cardinal Bernard Law, had allowed a pedophile priest to prey on parishioners for years. /Boston Globe image