Remnants of America's Free Press: Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartmann, Late Night Comedy and the Pacifica Network

Freedom of the press, along with an educated and informed electorate, is the cornerstone of the American Republic.  With newspapers, radio, television and internet outlets being the domain of corporations whose financial insterests make them enemies of the people's interests, rather than keeping government honest, those who tell the truth based on the facts have become rare.  It's kind of ironic, with Trump having turned the government into a circus of chaos, that the most honest and up front people in media, the remnants of a true "free press," are largely comedians who deliver what has become a daily budget of disaster with a nice comedic edge.  That may be the only way we can even stand to hear it.  

Getting Through the Day Because of the Stephanie Miller Show

I listen to Stephanie Miller every morning on the way to work, because I know that what I hear there will be factual.  I don't know anyone who has been able to develop a vocabulary that mocks Trump's grandiose bragging and over use of the same extreme terms like she does/   Every time I hear the word, "eleventy-billion", it cracks me up and that has a way of calming me down.  I think one of the best strategies Trump opposition and Democrats could have would be to make this program go viral and keep the same tone, format and approach.  

Everyone who comes to the mic on that show brings facts and reason and sanity to the discussion.  I trust their political judgment, and the laughs are natural, not forced.  The level of frustration, incedulity, shock and amazement at the absolute disaster we are seeing unfold every single day resonates with me, and has a way of giving me a sense of vindication and justification for the anger and frustration.  They make me feel like we are all watching an incredible disasater unfold together, experiencing and expressing common feelings, and getting a sense of hope that together, we can beat this thing.  

I finish listening to her on my way home after work, followed up by Thom Hartmann, who does an outstanding job of just letting people vent their frustrations and point out corruption.  I think it is important to hear what Americans are saying and be encouraged that as this moment has come when we are going to get a chance to make a difference, people will turn out and do what they've had bottled up inside for a while now.  And I think a lot of Thom's callers are helping leaders who are genuinely committed to resisting Trumpism be encouraged that they are not standing alone, not for a minute.  

For Me, and Millions of Others, Late Night Comedy is our Late Night News

I'm sure Trump and his cronies regret their decisions to attempt to use their power and influence totry t get Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert off of late night television.  The ham-fisted way they do these things backfired big time, giving Kimmel an audience four times the size of his normal audience, and he used the attention to fire off a directed, devastating and honest look at just what is going on that still resonates across late night television.  

We trust these guys because they are still telling the truth, and the humor that is woven into the whole narrative makes the message resonate.  It's honest and straightforward and that is what we need.  I really sleep much better at night because I'm not going to bed angry and frustrated over the way our local and network television reporters are handling the news, failing to report things that are important and letting the senastionalism of falsehood dominate the ten minutes they spend on headline news.  

I guess they don't teach real journalism in colleges and universities any more.  I can't believe some of these people who are calling themselves journalists are willing to simply be mouthpieces of manupulation, reading off what someone has told them to say and that they don't have an opinion of their own, or any integrity.  How can someone know what is going on, and yet sit at a news desk and completely ignore it?  

No wonder no one is watching.  

A True Free Press Isn't Controlled by Corporate Dollars

I'm sure it is difficult in media these days to avoid the pitfalls of profit.  But that's the only way we will ever have a free press again.  People have to make a living, but if they must sacrifice integrity to do so, what's been achieved?  

One of the last radio networks left that can still be considered independent and free is the Pacifica network.  There are five anchor stations, and I got introduced to this format about twenty years ago through one of those affiliates, KPFT-FM in Houston, Texas.  Broadcasting independent news, locally-originating shows mainly operated by volunteers, the drive time program in the morning through which I was introduced to the network was Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez.  They carried independent news, which is nothing more than old fashioned American free press journalism.  Report the fact and let the listeners make up their mind.  

I wish there was a way to help all of these news sources, whether it's Stephanie Miller's comedy, Thom Hartmann's discussion and talk, or the Pacifica Network's journalism and news, go viral and become the primary source of information to inform Americans.  I also wish we had a strong public broadcasting system, because I would take absolute neutrality over the corporate network bias any day. 

And in conversations I still have with friends who have trouble seeing the light, it is a distinct advantage when I challenge them to prove something Miller or Hartmann or Goodman or Pacifica said wrong.  I rarely get responses back directly, if they bother to check it out.  Silence from my MAGA supporting friends has been comforting affirmation that they know I am right.  

I encourage everyone who reads this to find ways to give support to these independent media voices that are telling the truth.  Help them broaden and expand their reach.