The Pen That Serves the State Cannot Serve the People
AustinLiberator
The Pen That Serves the State Cannot Serve the People
By David Crockett | The Austin Liberator
In the beginning, the Founders spoke with uncommon clarity:
"Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the
press." It was not a suggestion, nor a grant of privilege. It was a
barricade against tyranny. The First Amendment, placed at the head of our Bill
of Rights, enshrines not only the liberty to speak but the essential right to
report, investigate, publish, and criticize—without interference from the heavy
hand of government.
Freedom of the press is not a decorative liberty. It is the rampart through
which the people guard against the creeping tendrils of despotism. It empowers
citizens to govern themselves by keeping the powerful in check. It is the sword
that exposes corruption, the lamp that illuminates abuse, and the voice that
cannot be stifled by fear or favor.
Yet, in recent years, there has emerged a dangerous flirtation: the idea that
government might fund journalism. Perhaps it is born of economic anxiety or the
decline of local papers. Perhaps it is cloaked in the language of equity, or
the supposed need for "trusted information." But make no mistake:
government funding of the press is a path paved in good intentions and destined
for ruin.
Even in the rare cases where such funding is permitted—as with public
broadcasting or foreign-facing outlets like Voice of America—strict firewalls
and structural insulation have never fully shielded these agencies from
political pressure or public suspicion. The taxpayer's dollar is never neutral.
Wherever government funds flow, oversight follows. And where oversight lingers,
influence inevitably creeps.
It does not matter which party holds the purse strings. The impulse to sway,
soften, or suppress the truth is universal among those who wield power. Whether
by budget retaliation, editorial pressure, or reward for compliance,
government-funded news becomes an instrument of the state, not a safeguard
against it. The press must never become a vassal to the very entity it is
charged with holding accountable.
Consider the subtle tyranny of self-censorship. A newsroom receiving federal
grants may hesitate to investigate the agency that funds it. A journalist whose
paycheck depends on congressional appropriations may think twice before
exposing corruption within that very body. Even the perception of bias—the
faintest suggestion that the watchdog has become the lapdog—erodes public trust
and opens the door to propaganda masquerading as truth.
The Founders, who lived under the shadow of royal censorship and political
reprisal, would have found this arrangement intolerable. Thomas Jefferson,
though often assailed by the press, said he would rather have newspapers
without a government than a government without newspapers. That was not
hyperbole. It was an acknowledgement that the press, for all its flaws, must
stand apart if liberty is to endure.
In an age of disinformation and media chaos, it is tempting to seek order by
empowering the state. But the answer to media decay is not to hand the reins of
the Fourth Estate to the very leviathan it must restrain. The answer is
independence: through private support, nonprofit ownership, reader
subscriptions, and philanthropic commitment to truth without political strings.
Let the press be messy, loud, opinionated, and imperfect—but let it be free.
Let no man, president, party, or bureaucrat place their thumb on the scale of
public discourse through the instrument of funding.
If ever the press becomes dependent on the state, it will cease to be the voice
of the people and become instead a whisper of the regime. And so we say with
thunderous clarity:
The pen that serves the state cannot serve the people.
David Crockett is a constitutional law & tax attorney, political writer,
and Editor-in-Chief of The Austin Liberator. He hails from a proud lineage of
frontiersmen, freedom fighters, and firebrands—and writes in defense of law,
liberty, and the American soul.