Silence is Darkness When Light is Needed Most

 

I don't have any confusion that I am, at best, an editorialist--an opinion-writer, providing somewhat informed comment on the basis of well-reported investigative journalism (other people's). I'm also not under any illusions about what even the endorsement of an august paper of record like The Washington Post means to someone who in late October is still undecided--who knows what sources of information that person seeks out? 

But the decision not to endorse comes down to editorial credibility, and whether the paper (a quaint linguistic atavism for a journal now so-often received in digital form) can speak truth to power. In the spirit of Woodward and Bernstein--do you speak truth to power?

In the spirit of Vladimir Kara-Murza, do you speak truth to power? 

In the spirit of Jamaal Khashoggi, do you speak truth to power? 

See, that determination, with neither fear nor favor, is the name of the game. Is this outlet going to "tell it slant"?  Are they going to kill stories that are deemed too politically explosive, when maybe a little bit of Boom! is what the public needs? Will they be an accessory after the fact to political or criminal malfeasance, providing cover (when we know full well the cover up is in some ways worse than the crime--and where did we ever hear that before)? 

Because if this outlet ponderously shrugs off the traditional weighing of the candidates in the balance because they prefer not to say who has been found wanting, maybe Bartleby over here is in the wrong line of work.  And will experience the usual result of anyone or thing without a sense of purpose. 

The defection in resignations and public outcry and dropped subscriptions is the price paid for deciding to abandon editorial truth--the culmination of reporting and analysis to deliver a truly well-researched and informed opinion. 

I'm not calling the owner out of his name for a minute (not while I have Musk on the other line). But I recall him standing up for himself when the Saudis were blackmailing him, and his long adversarial situation with Trump--and wonder why try and fix it now? 

When dealing with a tyrant, it is better to come not to praise, or to stay silent. Not when the means are available to do with the pen what the sword cannot. 

There is only the light of truth.