The Time I Spoke Truth To Power

The Fourth Estate has not fallen but it has been badly wounded by oligarchs who control it and right now is the time the truth must win

December 03, 2024

black Corona typewriter on brown wood planks

I took a journalism class in 10th grade not because I had some huge idea of being a world-class reporter today (I was into acting and singing), but because I needed an elective and spots were available. Reading has always interested me, I devoured books from an early age, but writing wasn’t something I’d ever considered. Taking that class changed it for me.

The class doubled as the editorial and writing staff for the school newspaper, something I had no idea about until the first day. Did anyone actually read the school newspaper? I recall thinking. The whole idea seemed like a bit of a joke.

Then, we started to learn about journalism: telling the truth to power and shining a light on the unfair, the unrighteous, and the ignored. A good journalist could tell a story, make an argument, and change things for the better.

That same school year, a new dress code had been implemented: shirts had to be tucked in and if your pants had belt loops on them you were required to put a belt on. This was the mid-90s, the era of baggy t-shirts and even baggier pants, of untucked flannel shirts and boot-cut jeans. We didn’t tuck things in like some yuppie nerd.

So many of us started to cut off the belt loops on our pants in protest. I never really enjoyed wearing a belt and I wasn’t about to start because some annoying adult thought they could tell me what to wear.

I wrote a story for the school paper about the whole situation, including how I felt it was a violation of our First Amendment rights, and SCOTUS agreed with me in Tinker v. Des Moines:

In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court’s majority ruled that neither students nor teachers “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” The Court took the position that school officials could not prohibit only on the suspicion that the speech might disrupt the learning environment.

The dissent argued that the First Amendment does not grant the right to express any opinion at any time. Students attend school to learn, not teach. The armbands were a distraction. School officials, acting on a legitimate interest in school order, should have broad authority to maintain a productive learning environment.

Our teacher, to his credit, supported the story and we published it, our little 10-person or so class feeling empowered and excited.

The next day our teacher informed us that he’d been called into a meeting that morning with our Principal and the Superintendent and they were not very happy with us.

I felt betrayed as he explained what happened and what would be changed moving forward. All stories published by the paper would need to be approved by school administrators and anything critical of schoolboard decisions was banned. We toed the line or we didn’t go to print.

To say I was angry was an understatement. I was livid. How dare some adult tell me what I was allowed to write about? I have a First Amendment, dickwad (that’s 90s slang for “raging asshole”) I’ll say whatever I want.

My next story was a satirical narrative that told the tale of a tasty schoolboard being devoured by hyenas (I liked The Lion King). My teacher told me I was being switched to sports for the remainder of the semester and had me interviewing members of the football team.

He was angry too, he admitted it at least to some extent. We were kids, and his students so he had to remain guarded. But it was clear to several of us that the level of meddling the schoolboard was willing to do over his class had irked him.

Our assignments that year involved more studies of the First Amendment and my hyena-eating story got me an A even though it went unpublished. I get it now of course but I was disappointed at the time.

If social media had existed I’d like to think I’d have gotten on Bluesky and talked about it, but I’m honestly not sure. They had immense power over me. If I failed the class or was expelled or something, where would it have left me? I was 15 and a kid and I had to listen when adults decided things.

Our current Fourth Estate finds itself in a similar predicament: most of it is controlled by oligarchs quick to capitulate and remove them from their broadcast timeslots or beats if they get too critical of the wrong person, group, or idea.

Entire media companies have closed, without announcement, leaving their reporters without an income scrambling to try and find something new, or assemble a social media following that can support them while allowing them to keep speaking truth.

All I know is this: the Founders would not have given us an empowered media if they didn’t feel using it was necessary. Paul Revere’s depiction of the Boston Massacre was so powerful it supercharged the Sons of Liberty movement, got the soldiers put on trial (they were represented by John Adams and acquitted), and was a catalyst for a revolution against tyranny.

The truth matters, especially when the powerful don’t want you telling it because it threatens their standing, their influence, and their money. When it does, it becomes vital to tell as loudly and as often as possible.

Never let anyone make you tuck your shirt in if you don’t want to.