I continue to be confounded by the indecisiveness of philosophical opposition in our region to the idea of partisan political control and the direction of journalism in North Carolina. The notion that writers should be subjected to harsh punitive actions for resisting outside political interference in journalism and other forms of writing and, for that matter, the arts, seems to have gained a seamy currency or plausibility for certain situations.
In the Research Triangle, it is imperative that the three research universities — N.C. State, UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University — refrain from entering into agreements with government agencies, the political parties or elected officials at the federal, state or local levels to cooperate in or help facilitate the transfer of original writing and research from independent writers and editors to political operatives or governmental agents.
The same responsible attitude and position of non-meddling should also apply to efforts by writers in our region to gain employment in journalism or communications-related positions in the press, academia and elsewhere.
I would offer this advice to college journalists (and indeed, to all students), regardless of what they aspire to after graduation: make it clear among your circles of family and friends, places of religious faith, offices of family attorneys and future centers of employment in the private or public sector that you do not wish to have your personal productive output relegated to the confines of information-gathering for groups or individuals interested only in the outcome of the next elections.
If you make a decision to work in political campaigns or for that matter in the offices of elected officials in North Carolina or Washington, then that is an honorable choice. Indeed, I was a candidate for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina in 1978 and for the U.S. House of Representatives in the Charlotte area in 1988 and 1990.
But for young adults expecting to work in journalism or in other positions independent of partisan politics involving communications skills, then it must be made clear that it is not acceptable for limitations on work productivity or future employability to be imposed by political, academic or other organizations not interested in the progress and advance of one’s personal life or professional career.
The U.S. Constitution (the First Amendment) and the North Carolina Constitution (the Declaration of Rights) provide clear and unambiguous protections of freedom of press and other forms of freedom of expression in American life. In fact, at North Carolina’s first state convention to consider the U.S. Constitution, held in Hillsborough in July and August 1788, delegates voted to defer ratification of the new federal plan of government pending the addition of a Bill of Rights to preserve the freedoms and liberties won during the American Revolution. With Congress having taken action to send a Bill of Rights to the states for approval, North Carolina delegates meeting at a second state convention in Fayetteville in November 1789 voted to ratify the U.S. Constitution, becoming the second to last of the original 13 states to do so.
Thus as we observe the bicentennial of the presidency of James Madison (1809-1817), certainly among the most influential authors of the U.S. Constitution at the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention of 1787, we should renew our commitments to freedom of the press in this country and remind leaders of government, academia and the political parties that the well-being of the Republic depends to a considerable degree upon the open-ended workings of a free press in all its forms.
It is up to journalism organizations in return to be aware of the precious dimensions of constitutionally protected freedom of the press and to exercise these vital democratic and republican liberties responsibly in order to preserve freedom of expression for future generations of Americans.
