What’s this crazy world coming to?

When I decided to switch from majoring in architecture to becoming a newspaper journalist, that was about the time “All the Presidents Men” was mesmerizing theater audiences. Watching Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein chase the Watergate break-in story, I so wanted to be Robert Redford.

While becoming the next Frank Lloyd Wright would have been great, I gravitated to what I saw as a rewarding career. The architecture money would have been a lot better, but journalism didn’t require as much college. Besides that, you can’t beat being a pillar of the First Amendment or being referred to as a member of the Fourth Estate.

But being a journalist these days is not all it’s cracked up to be, or, at least, what I expected it to be 50 years ago. In the 1970s, journalists never imagined being labeled “the enemy of the people” in presidential rhetoric, although Richard Nixon had a vitriolic relationship with the media.

McCurtain’s murder musings

The latest instance of today’s derisive view of journalists toiling at what is more a calling, more a passion than it is a job hit the front page of the McCurtain Gazette-News last weekend It immediately became a bellwether for making public whose side you’re on — those who diligently report what’s actually occurring as objectively as possible, or those who pander to a biased audience to inflate ratings and appease influential power mongers. (More on that later.)

If, for some reason, you haven’t heard about the Little Dixie bombshell from last weekend, the Gazette-News reported about a wide-ranging and especially caustic and clandestine discussion among county officials in which they talked about murdering local journalists and reminisced about racist policing The newspaper based its reporting on audio from a voice-activated recording device left by newspaper publisher Bruce Willingham on March 6 in the county commissioners’ chamber. Willingham was acting on a tip that the commissioners were illegally engaging in county business after the public meetings were over, which would be a violation of the Open Meeting Law.

Those identified as being part of the impromptu discussion were County Commissioner Mark Jennings, Sheriff Kevin Clardy, investigator Alicia Manning and Jail Administrator Larry Hendrix who “discussed beating, killing and burying” Gazette-News reporter Chris Willingham and publisher Bruce Willingham, the son and father for the family-owned newspaper.

According to the audio recording, the commissioner and the sheriff talked about lynching Black people.

“Take them down to Mud Creek and hang them up with a damn rope. But you can’t do that anymore. They got more rights than we got,” Jennings said.

Then the discussion turned to the Willinghams.

“I know where two big deep holes are here if you ever need them,” Jennings offered. “I’ve known two or three hitmen, they’re very quiet guys, and would cut no ******* mercy. ’Cause this is all Mafia around here.”

Then Manning speculated: “But if a hair on his wife’s head (Chris Willingham’s wife, Angie), Chris Willingham’s head, or any of those people that really were behind that, if any hair on their head got touched by anybody, who would be the bad guy?”

It was last year that the newspaper investigated a case in which sheriff’s deputies tased a hogtied burglary suspect and killed him. Because the newspaper was doing what a newspaper does, the past year has been no bed of roses for the Willinghams.

Christin Jones, an attorney for the law firm representing the Willingham family, said in a statement: “For nearly a year, they have suffered intimidation, ridicule and harassment based solely on their efforts to report the news for McCurtain County.”

Gov. Kevin Stitt, who called the exchange “horrid comments” and “hateful rhetoric,” is among those who have called for the resignation of those involved. Stitt also called on the OSBI to launch an investigation, and Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office is also investigating. Chris Willingham says he has been in contact with the FBI for more than a month about the threats.

On Tuesday, the Oklahoma Sheriffs’ Association suspended Clardy, Manning and Hendrix. Then on Wednesday, Jennings resigned as commissioner.

The sheriff’s office has alleged the audio recording is a violation of the Oklahoma Security of Communications Act, said the recording has not been “duly authenticated or validated” and claims the recording was altered prior to being released. The sheriff’s office not only terms the recording as “being illegally obtained,” but questions the accuracy and consistency of what was reported.

Moscow misinformation

Then there’s the situation with the Wall Street Journal reporter who was arrested on trumped-up spying charges as part of a sweeping Kremlin crackdown on dissent and press freedom amid the war in Ukraine. He is the first U.S. correspondent since the Cold War to be detained in Russia on spying allegations.

While the journalist and the U.S. government vehemently deny the allegations, how surprising is it that this is the practice in Russia? Vladimir Putin rules with an iron fist, quashing any attempts contrary to the propaganda of the Communist country.

I’ve been a journalist in several markets in half a dozen different states, all of which required some adjustments and were characterized by their own idiosyncrasies, but I have no interest in being a foreign correspondent, no matter the compensation or the notoriety.

More misinformation

Then there’s the penultimate example of “What’s the world coming to?”

In Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, which came to an abrupt end earlier this week, while it’s obvious the news organization and its talking heads purposely and with blatant disregard for the truth spread the lie of a stolen 2020 presidential election, the question for those of us who get lumped in with such wackos is, “How bad can you make us all look?”

While the $787.5 million Fox News must pay Dominion is somewhat satisfying, it doesn’t hurt as much as $1.6 billion would have, and it won’t repair the journalistic reputation for those of us who are guilty not by association, but by those who condemn all journalists based on the bad acts of others.

To be sure, while the trial was labeled a test of First Amendment protections, it was not. It was about lying for lying’s sake. It was about knowing that election denying and claims of a stolen election and disparaging Dominion were all concocted just to ingratiate Fox News to conspiracy nuts and the far-right radicals. That has nothing to do with the First Amendment. It’s well-known and long-held that falsely shouting fire in a crowded theater to create panic is not protected free speech, and what Fox News has done since the 2020 election is nothing short of exactly that.

While a $1.6 billion judgment against Fox News would not have shut down the crackpot network, it would have hopefully gone a long way toward crippling it. Those who are the face of Fox News are journalists in name only. They are merely entertainers and enablers and glory hogs. And if the likes of Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham and Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro and Jesse Watters — and any others you want to include — had found themselves out on their collective ear, even better.

Now if we can just make a harsh and indelible example of everyone — and I do mean from the top down — involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection, we may be on our way to restoring our nation and actually making America great. But don’t get me started. That’s a topic for another day.