Rural editor writes: Journalists' search for truth is imperfect, but they protect us from an authoritarian future

Steven Doyle

The editor of a small-town daily newspaper makes an impassioned case for the importance of a free press in a recent editorial. The nation's basic principles "start with the freedom of the press, the right to hold people accountable for their bald-face lies, their little untruths, their obfuscations, their obstructions and their sleights-of-hand, Steven Doyle writes for the Martinsville Bulletin in Virginia.

Journalists are often criticized, though, and that smarts, Doyle acknowledges, though reporters aren't perfect. He uses an interesting analogy: "Journalists are phlebotomists of truth, tapping around with our questions until we find a hidden, plump vein. We are humans and make mistakes. Not every 'tap' is with perfect touch and sensitivity," he writes. "But those of us who work for conscientious and non-ideological news organizations tap with unrelenting purpose – all the while facing that fusillade of snide disrespect and ridicule."

Doyle asks readers to beware of biased parties' attempts to slander the news media with cries of "fake news," and asserts—using a vivid image from the Hulu series The Handmaid's Tale—that the absence of a free press is the fastest route to an authoritarian future.