The free press and reporting Cesar Chavez’s fall

I, like many readers, found myself stunned by the allegations and revelations of sexual misconduct against Cesar Chavez, one of the leaders of the United Farm Workers movement in the 1960s and 1970s. I always thought he was one of the good guys standing up for the farm workers. I guess he was, but he apparently had a pretty profound character flaw.

Frankly, I found myself even more stunned by the immediate, unnerving and brutal reactions and responses to these disturbing revelations, especially from so many in the Latino community that made Chavez such a revered superstar.

“Is there any tangible evidence or are people just having knee jerk reactions to a 60-year-old allegation?” one reader commented on a story posted yesterday by Lassen News — “Central Valley Assemblymember proposes renaming César Chávez Day to Farmworker Day” — actually a press release by Republican Assemblymember Alexandra Macedo.

Click here to read that story.

Obviously, I have no first-hand knowledge of these alleged events, but given the sudden and seemingly universal rejection of Chavez by those who knew him best, I suspect this information must have been well known, overlooked and ignored by those in Chavez’s community. Macedo’s statement was simply the first incoming message on this topic.

We’re just bringing the news to our readers
To set the record straight, LassenNews frequently publishes statements from elected officials seeking to communicate with the people. I reviewed our coverage in response to allegations of our bias last month, and I discovered we published many more statements from Republicans than Democrats during that period. So go figure.

While some in our community smear LassenNews as a liberal rag, those who read us know we publish statements from all sides of the political spectrum — not because we agree with all of them but because we believe a free and open marketplace of ideas makes a vital and necessary contribution to our society. We agree with the Founding Fathers who wisely enshrined the rights of a free press in the First Amendment.

I endure the slings and arrows of those who stubbornly claim I am a born again, hair on fire liberal from Berkeley who has no place up here in ruby red MAGAville because those criticisms just come with the job. By the way — I am not a born again, hair on fire liberal. I’ve never lived in Berkeley. I didn’t go to school there, either.

I will always grant anyone and everyone the right to hold any political position or opinion, most especially those with whom I disagree the most. You see, the consideration of such diverse and contradictory views refreshes and nurtures our body politic. I firmly believe in the rights of free speech and expression and their role in steering the ship of state. Without those basic, foundational freedoms, we, the people, have nothing to say about anything except to regurgitate the party line.

And for those in our community who love to criticize the mainstream and legacy media as fake news, I must note this story about the alleged wrongdoing of a civil rights icon broke because of the investigative reporting by The New York Times.

Just imagine the implications of that for a moment in our era where the free press is so fervently and constantly maligned for its intolerable and unforgivable bias — the liberal and failing New York Times spent its time and treasure to search out these stories that brought down a beloved civil rights leader.

Click here to read the New York Times’ story.

Seems to me, this is exactly why we need a free and independent press in our county.