.

Free Press

Our founding fathers fought the fight
__to conquer tyranny.
Once won, the Congress met to write
__new laws to keep us free.

They knew that governments all gained
__voracious appetites.
To keep that appetite restrained,
__they passed the Bill of Rights.

Of all our rights, the single right
__that most drove our success,
though hard to pick, that right just might
__have been our once free press.

The press once wrote about the lies
__that politicians told,
when Pulitzer was still a prize
__awarded to the bold.

When members of the free press corps
__cared just about the facts,
our politicians thought before
__committing heinous acts.

But gone are who, what, when, where, why
__and caring what is true.
The press has proven they will lie
__to sell their point of view.

They’re now quite careful to select
__which stories they will write.
What’s bad for those they helped elect
__will never see the light.

But what will hurt the enemy
__of those that they support,
need not have credibility
__yet that’s what they report.

They feel deep down inside that they
__are better than we are.
Which means of course that there’s no way
__for them to go too far.

They take the talking points they’re sent
__straight from the DNC
and then portray what they present
__as objectivity.

This Pravda-like insanity
__is here for good unless
enough of us demand that we
__must have a true free press.

.

.

Warren Bonham is a private equity investor who lives in Southlake, Texas.

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13 Responses

  3. Roy Eugene Peterson

    Great take on the degradation and depravity of our once free press that has now become harnessed by the opinions (not the facts) of the left. I was particularly struck by your inclusion of “Pravda” in the last verse as the bound and beholden Soviet newspaper. “Pravda” means “truth” in Russian, but there was no truth in Pravda!

    Reply
  4. Cynthia Erlandson

    This is really well done! I love “governments all gained voracious appetites.”

    Reply
    • Warren Bonham

      The founders saw this as a risk but I’m guessing they’d be shocked by how big government has become.

      Reply
  5. Norma Pain

    Thank you for this poem Warren. All of the lies we are being told are disgusting.

    Reply
  6. Margaret Coats

    Well done, Warren. I especially like your quoting the question words in stanza 6; these used to be an easy reminder of the facts any reporter should convey in his articles. The whole of stanza 9 is a good way to express the contempt that many in the media now feel for people in general.

    Reply
  7. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    You explain exactly what our “Free Press” once stood for and what it stands for now, and the contrast is chilling.

    But gone are who, what, when, where, why
    and caring what is true.
    The press has proven they will lie
    to sell their point of view.

    This stanza is spot on. Perhaps if so many people weren’t swayed by this corruption, eyes would be opened, and the crumbling Western world would benefit as a result. One can but hope, although I think we may have reached the point of no return. Thank you, Warren!

    Reply

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