WaPo | On Saturday night, Washington journalists
hobnobbed with politicians and celebrities at the black-tie White House
Correspondents’ Association dinner — and then spent Sunday arguing about
whether comedian Michelle Wolf was too harsh toward President Trump,
who uses his presidential pulpit to mock the journalists.
Late Sunday night, Washington time, nine journalists in Kabul
were among at least 29 people killed in suicide bombing attacks. That
brings to 24 the number of journalists killed worldwide so far this
year, following 46 last year — a year that also saw a record high of
262 journalists jailed, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
This
ugly juxtaposition ought to shame Washington media. It isn’t just about
the dinner, though that spectacle needs to be replaced with something
appropriate for this grim time in our profession. What’s needed is a
change in the way we think of ourselves as journalists.
Journalists
are, with good reason, resistant to the role of advocate. But at a time
when Trump is leading a successful movement to discredit the free press
at home, advocating the First Amendment isn’t a conflict of interest.
And at a time when the Trump administration is helping autocrats
undermine journalists around the world, campaigning for our jailed and
murdered brethren doesn’t compromise our journalistic independence.
On May 3 of last year — World Press Freedom Day — the U.S. secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, gave a speech
announcing that freedom and human rights may be “our values” but they
are “not our policies.” He continued: “If we condition too heavily that
others must adopt this value . . . it really creates obstacles to our
ability to advance our national security interests, our economic
interests.” (Just last week, Trump described North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, leader of the most repressive regime on Earth, as “open” and “honorable.”)
As the president attacks the press as the “fake news media” and the “enemy of the American people,” so far this year
, two journalists in the United States have been arrested, eight have
been attacked and nine have received subpoenas. The Trump administration
has charged two people for leaking under the 1917 Espionage Act.
