Just a few months before the presidential elections in the United States, Martin Baron, former director of Washington Post and of The Boston Globe, recalled this Friday the dialectical disagreements between Donald Trump and the American press that occurred during his presidency. A few days after the president arrived at the Oval Office, Baron uttered some words that he repeated this week before a group of journalism students: “We are not at war with the Government, we are working.” That, as he explained, was his response to the former president’s “declaration of permanent war” to journalists in his country.
Baron warned about the danger of misinformation, the need for journalists to carry out their work professionally, fairly and independently, and the importance of investigative work in this field, and he did so in perfect Spanish before the students of the Master of the UAM-EL PAÍS School of Journalism. His warnings resonated like a storm that hung over those present while the American journalist recalled the last legislature and warned about the dangers that the press may face again if Trump returns to power. “We will have to defend the role of the press with equal parts professionalism and determination,” he assured, “exercising the profession in an honest, fair, independent and objective manner, without confusing objectivity with a false equidistance.”
The journalist defended that the free press and democracy cannot live without each other and warned of the difficulty of recovering the second once it has been lost. To protect democracies, he argued that governments “should separate themselves from regulating the press,” adding: “If they have the right to regulate it, they are going to control it.” From the media, he insisted that “we must tell if power does things well, but also if it commits evils, which, furthermore, can acquire an extraordinary dimension.”
Martin Baron celebrated in this classroom that Donald Trump has been found guilty in the Stormy Daniels case, and commented that, although “it is not going to have a big impact on the elections, he has finally been held accountable.” Demanding responsibilities from the powerful is difficult, but necessary, even more so, according to Baron, in an election year and in a time like the current one: “The electorate will wonder if it is possible to distinguish reality from fiction. The land is fertilized to be exploited for evil purposes,” he said. To face this situation, journalists need an indomitable spirit and muster a lot of courage.
Regarding the role of journalists as representatives of the media for which they work, Baron insisted that they must think “about the consequences of their comments on social networks so as not to undermine the reputation of their institution.” Hence the importance of communication companies having written standards and guidelines, something that he himself implemented as head of Washington Post.
After the meeting with the students, Baron In a video interview with EL PAÍS, he analyzed the situation in the United States after Trump’s conviction: “The political tension in the US is only going to get worse. Trump was earlier talking about his desire to get revenge on his political enemies. And his media allies, his sycophants and his henchmen have said that he should have a list of people he wants to indict after entering the White House. He is going to describe himself as a victim of an autocrat [en referencia a Biden]”.
The former director of The Washington Post recalled that Trump “is talking about the possibility of using the army to suppress legitimate demonstrations, charge his supposed political enemies, suspend the Constitution […] And also his desire to imprison journalists for alleged treason.” Furthermore, “Trump has talked about the possibility of a civil war,” something terrifying. “I hope that the citizens of the United States abide by the results of the November elections,” he concluded.
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