Free speech and the free press were considered so vitally important to our founders that the very First Amendment in the Bill of Rights stated: “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” They enshrined this principle first because they knew a functioning democracy requires informed citizens capable of questioning authority, weighing competing claims, and holding leaders accountable. The free press does this and makes a bridge between events and our collective understanding.

The founders also knew that the press had never been perfect, and that manipulating information is as old as history—from Caesar’s embellished battlefield reports to the excesses and missteps of their own time. What we face today is no different: verdicts for slander and libel are sometimes ignored or unenforced, while Russian troll farms and algorithm-driven social media stand as vivid reminders of how fragile the truth can be.

Part of the strength of a free press lies in its willingness to admit and correct mistakes—something propaganda never does. In fact, refusing to acknowledge errors is a classic sign of dishonesty. Most journalists strive for accuracy because they live in the same communities as their readers, and they understand that their reputation for honesty is their most valuable asset.

Labeling the press as “fake news” or “the enemy of the people” is both false and dangerous. It’s false because, throughout history, the press has served as a vital safeguard for ordinary citizens—Ida B. Wells exposed the horrors of lynching, and the Washington Post uncovered the Watergate scandal and there are many other examples of the free press serving our citizens and democracy. It’s dangerous because such rhetoric undermines the public’s best defense against deception. Calling journalists “the enemy of the people” turns watchdogs into scapegoats and erodes the distinction between honest mistakes and deliberate misinformation. When trust in journalism collapses, propaganda rushes in to fill the void, leaving
citizens vulnerable to manipulation.

History warns about what happens when shared reality is lost. Plato and Hannah Arendt, who lived in vastly different circumstances 2000 years apart, both showed how politics built on lies devolves into manipulation. MAGA rhetoric demonstrates this vividly: when citizens are told to dismantle every institution and believe only one leader, democracy gives way to authoritarian rule.

Our own direct personal experiences also help guard against lies. Leaders may dismiss climate change, but when the sky turns orange from wildfire smoke, your senses tell you otherwise. When officials said COVID-19 was “just the flu,” the millions of families who lost loved ones knew it was not. Personal experience is the ultimate fact-check, reminding us that no amount of spin can erase what people live, feel, and see. But these insights are limited. No individual will ever be able to accumulate enough direct experiences to navigate today’s complex world by themselves.

We all depend on the experience and expertise of mechanics, doctors, engineers, farmers, and many others to survive. Rejecting this expertise is not independence—it is surrendering to manipulation. The issue is not whether to trust, but how to verify. Clearly, transparency, fact-checking, and open discussion matter.

In the end, we live between two poles: the limited but undeniable truth of our own personal experiences, and the broader yet imperfect truths revealed by reporters and others, about other peoples’ experiences and insights into dozens of fields including science, economics and the arts. A healthy democracy requires us to engage with both poles. To dismiss either one because it sometimes makes mistakes, or contradicts a preferred narrative is to abandon the search for truth.

Democracy (and possibly all human relationships) depends on trust because citizens must trust and believe in each other and in their shared institutions. Without trust, elections, laws, and even public debate lose legitimacy. But trust cannot exist without truth: if politics is built on lies, people no longer share a common reality, and cooperation becomes impossible. In this way, truth is the foundation of trust, and trust is the foundation of democracy.

American Reality Today
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