Why rural weekly newspapers should care about the Big Lie

By Al Cross
Director and Professor, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, University of Kentucky

The second hearing of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol focused on the origins, progression, use, and impact of what the panel and a lot of other people call "the Big Lie," the false assertion by Donald Trump that the 2020 election was stolen from him. How Trump developed the tale, how he used it and what it caused are important questions. But so is the persistence of the lie in the minds of millions of Americans.

It remains to be seen whether hearings on national television, even on the Fox News Channel, will dislodge the Big Lie. People are naturally reluctant to acknowledge that they've been conned, many just want to move on, and many more just don't care, especially at a time of economic stress. Most of their local newspapers don't seem to care, either. Some do but don't show it because they have found national politics to be toxic, even dangerous, and certainly too much of a headache and a business risk.

The old maxim "All politics is local" has been turned on its head by Trump's presidency, his domination of news cycles and social media, and the decline of local news media, creating vacuums filled by social media and national news media. Now, our neighbors increasingly are defined by party or attitude toward Trump, and partisan politics is being injected into elections for nonpartisan office, so it is beginning to seem like all politics is national.

From The North Scott Press, May 19, 2021

This is a huge sea change in our country, and too many local newspapers are afraid to say anything about it. More need to follow the example of The North Scott Press in Eldridge, Iowa, where Publisher Bill Tubbs regularly stands up for the truth, national and local. As the hearing was going on Monday, I came across a couple of editorial columns that Bill sent me last year. They are examples of the sort of editorial leadership we need. 

One, written more than a year ago, after House Republicans stripped Rep. Liz Cheney of her leadership position, quoted Cheney's rejection of the Big Lie ("Remaining silent and ignoring the lie, emboldens the liar; I will not participate in this"), recounted Tubbs' difficulty in getting comment from his own congresswoman, asked a good question and delivered a bracing answer:

So why is a country editor writing about this when there is so much else to write about? Simply stated, because I believe the Big Lie will continue to divide this nation I love until it is rooted out at the core. If democracy is stolen based on a lie and I did not speak, I would feel forever shamed. The antiseptic, as always, is truth. Give credit to Rep. Cheney and Republicans like Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who had the courage to speak truth to power – come where it will, cost what it may. To them, the unity of the nation is more important than the unity of any party. That's why I am disappointed that my congresswoman, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, voted otherwise. I've met her and visited with her on more than one occasion, and expected better. Oh, I understand. She is new and wants to get along with her party. . . . The propaganda machine has been more effective than the voices of scribes like me. Still, I must speak. . . . The peculiar phenomenon of the Big Lie, as I see it, is that members of Congress who buy into Trump's "Stop the Steal" were elected on the very same ballots. Funny they don't question their own victories – even by six votes, which was the case for Rep. Miller-Meeks.

As Liz Cheney said, we can't ignore lies. As Bill Tubbs said, this one must be rooted out, and that has to happen at the grass roots -- from the bottom up, not just the top down. More than 100 winners of Republican primaries this year support Trump's false claims, The Washington Post reports. The Big Lie is built on distrust of elites and the governments they influence, but it so greatly deepens that distrust that citizens feel disconnected from their democratic republic. That can be the beginning of the end of that republic. We all have a duty to keep it going, especially journalists.