(Editor’s note: Randy Travis retired in 2024 as an investigative reporter for FOX 5 Atlanta. In November, he won election to the Lawrenceville City Council. Today he reflects on the role of the press in our country.)—eeb.
By Randy Travis
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. | After 45 years in the news business, I’m now out here in the information wasteland with the rest of you, probably asking the same question, too: who can you trust to tell you the truth? Journalism should be one of our country’s most trusted institutions. It’s the only private business protected by name in the Constitution. (Applause, please, for the First Amendment.)
The Founders knew they needed to protect the press if they wanted an independent entity to keep an eye on this new form of government. For generations, those government watchdogs served our country well.
In my lifetime, journalists caught the government lying about the Vietnam War when the New York Times and Washington Post printed the Pentagon Papers. The Post also exposed the corruption inside the Nixon White House through its dogged Watergate investigation.
I always imagined the Founding Fathers looking down with satisfaction as journalists time and again protected our freedoms, even if it sometimes took longer than it should have. (Tuskegee syphilis trials, Japanese-American internment camps, Jim Crow, etcetera, etcetera.)
However, lately, I fear some in our country have taken for granted the patriotic work that journalists provide, and, even worse, blame the messengers for much of our current troubles.
When the Nazis took over Germany in 1933, the German Constitution guaranteed freedom of speech and freedom of the press, just like ours.
But through decrees and laws, the Nazis abolished these civil rights. By 1934, it was illegal to criticize the Nazi government. It was illegal to tell a joke about Hitler. Saturday Night Live would not have lived long in Nazi Germany.
In 1933, the Nazis controlled less than three percent of the country’s 4,700 newspapers. That meant 4,500 of them were not Nazi mouthpieces.
But slowly, Hitler eventually eliminated any independent voices. The people only heard what he wanted them to hear. They heard lies. And they believed them. What happened next became one of the greatest sins in human history.
In our country, some believe the bad guys are not corrupt politicians, but the journalists who report what those politicians are doing. If an elected leader attacks the reporter (which sometimes happened in my old life) rather than answer the reporter’s questions, you knew you were performing your patriotic duty as a journalist. And you didn’t let up.
Cable news bears much of the blame for journalism’s fading reputation. Some clearly advocate for a political party or candidate, blurring the lines between journalism and commentary. I can understand why some Americans are confused or bitter.
According to a September 2025 Pew Research Center survey, 56 percent of Americans still get some of their news from television, far more than from radio or print.
So try this: if the only channel you watch constantly confirms your biases about the world, instead of at least occasionally challenging those beliefs, add another news channel or news outlet to your daily routine.
True journalists understand their role in keeping our country free. Don’t ignore them just because others fail to learn that lesson.
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