In what can only be seen as a sign of an increasingly isolated chief executive, Gov. Paul LePage’s forum at Husson University Tuesday night raises important ethical questions concerning journalistic integrity and the university’s mission to advance critical thinking and the advancement of knowledge. In effect, the crowd is controlled, the message is controlled and the press is controlled.
Bypassing his responsibility to address the people of this state, LePage is staging an openly contrived event, with no First Amendment rights allowed, as the press is not free to attend, all questions will be screened in advance by Channel 7, and the attendees will be preselected. The event “will have a small studio audience chosen by the governor’s office,” the BDN reported Friday.
It can only be described as Orwellian, total control, reminiscent of the worst days of Richard Nixon. George Orwell once said that “in a world of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” The truth is, Channel 7/WVII is abrogating its journalistic responsibilities toward the First Amendment through its role in an event sure to erode its credibility as a media source going forward.
Husson University is running the same risk, stifling debate and dissent, hosting an event that clearly doesn’t meet any level of academic standards.
Both institutions should realize that credibility is a perishable commodity — once surrendered, it’s difficult to redeem.
As this governor lurches further and further to the right, cracks have appeared in the armor. His racially charged remarks brought embarrassment to our state. The governor’s remarks unmask what many of us already knew about his racist and xenophobic tendencies, his class war against poor people of all colors and his vindictiveness toward immigrants based on color and religion.
Then, last week, for the first time in his administration, the specter of the McCarthy era of the 1950s raised its ugly head. On MPBN, LePage asserted that impeachment supporters and supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders are socialists.
The racial remarks spoke for themselves. They received worldwide condemnation. Now LePage’s dangerous use of the word “socialist” as a pejorative should remind all Americans that we have lived through dark periods in our history when men and women were blacklisted and jailed for being falsely accused of being socialists. It is highly irresponsible and inflammatory language from the mouth of a man who possesses increasingly fascist tendencies.
The ingredients are all there: xenophobic, racially challenged, authoritarian, dictatorial, fervently nationalistic, no dissent allowed, irrational and highly isolated. In the 1930s, we called it a nightmare.
Why would a television station and a university provide a venue for such a “town hall”?
Rep. Jeffrey Evangelos, an independent from Friendship, is serving his second term in the Maine House.