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Show Knowledge Will Forever Govern Ignorance By Robert W. Kastenmeier, M.C. (Wis.) It was James Madison who said that "knowledge will forever govern ignorance. And a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power that knowledge gives. A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy." The framers of our Constitution saw an unfettered, un-fettered, vigorous press as essential to democracy. democ-racy. They recognized that if people are to delegate power to elected representatives, it is imperative that they have full confidence in those representatives. That confidence derives from knowledge, and that knowledge comes from the efforts of a press that should be beholden to no one but its public. Thus, freedom of the press is inseparable from the right of the people to be told the i truth, and if press freedom is allowed to weaken, the public and our democracy will be the victims. Although the function of providing provid-ing a free flowing of information lo the public is so vital that the Constitution protects it absolutely, ab-solutely, it, perhaps, is not surprising that the most frequent obstacle to transmitting knowledge lo the public has come from government. Fortunately, throughout our history, up to and including the most recent of times, our system has rejected these threats. The theme for this year's National Newspaper Newspa-per Week, "Freedom In Our Hands," is a most appropriate recognition of the solemn obligation which rests with the press, and, notwithstanding not-withstanding regular and often disquieting challenges to press freedom, the Founding Fathers, today would find the press, as they envisioned it, unfettered, vigorous and essential essen-tial to democracy. |
