The American free press is alive but not well.
It’s slowly being suffocated by attacks on its credibility, lawsuits that are often meritless and allegations of “fake news” hurled at every inconvenient truth.
Here’s an inconvenient truth: If we allow the press to be stripped of its freedom and stature, we are handing over our own power as American citizens to know what is really going on. We’re cutting off our ability to access facts and decide for ourselves where we want the country to go.
The latest assault is President Donald Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit filed against Rupert Murdoch, The Wall Street Journal and the two reporters behind a story about a bawdy birthday note from Trump to Jeffrey Epstein.
The president disagrees with the story and is punishing everyone involved with an outrageous lawsuit and remarkably inaccurate social media claims disparaging The Journal, one of the most respected newspapers in the world, as “a useless rag.” That language is designed, of course, to diminish the newspaper’s reputation and trust in retaliation for what Trump sees as an unflattering story.
President Abraham Lincoln famously called our government “of the people, by the people, for the people.” If we, the people, want to keep it that way, then now’s the time to take a stand against this erosion of our right to a free press.
I say this as a lifelong conservative whose first job was with the Republican National Committee and later served in President Ronald Reagan’s administration (a reference that shows my youth, I know).
I’ve built a career in strategic communications and also served as the CEO and publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, both Pulitzer Prize-winning news outlets.
I’m not afraid to say when President Trump has done something right. But on this issue, he’s dangerously wrong.
I’ve seen the news media business from every angle, and I’ll be the first to tell you that the media does get the story wrong sometimes. But an outlet with journalistic integrity will issue corrections when warranted.
A news outlet that only publishes flattering articles about someone in power − as Trump is attempting to force the industry to do − may be the most “fake news” of them all.
The ongoing outcry about the unreleased Epstein files shows that Americans still want to hold truth to power. Guess what? That’s infinitely harder to do without a free press.
What other entity can petition the courts for sensitive documents, get context and insider insight from influential leaders in every industry, corporation and government office, and then disseminate that information on a trusted platform?
Trump is right in one sense. There’s plenty of fake news circulating on the internet today. It isn’t coming from the media outlets that still have rigorous fact-checking standards.
You won’t always like the news coverage, and you may not always think it’s fair. I don’t, but I do know that it’s essential, and no political leader should try to extinguish a First Amendment right and silence independent voices.
As President Reagan, who often found news stories he disagreed with, once said: “There is no more essential ingredient than a free, strong and independent press to our continued success in what the Founding Fathers called our ‘noble experiment’ in self-government.”
I’m calling on fellow conservatives, bipartisan leaders, business executives and everyday citizens to join me in defending the integrity of journalism.
Debate opinions all you want − and keep them confined to opinion articles − but we can’t allow this full-scale, ongoing attack of the press that’s coming from both the highest office and the conversation of everyday Americans.
It will hurt our country, our democracy and ourselves.
In 2026, America will celebrate her 250th birthday. Let’s make sure she reaches that milestone with the First Amendment intact and supported by a citizenship that understands the value of journalism in a free and fair society.
Brian Tierney is the CEO of Brian Communications and former publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer.com