Anti-Trump reporting
The BDN’s biased reporting of the president is so obvious it smacks of stupidity. Saturday’s front page is a perfect example: two negative stories about President Donald Trump’s trip to the Group of 20 summit in Europe from The Washington Post — the most liberal, anti-Trump newspaper on the planet. Get a life of your own BDN and listen to the American people.
Lew Gardner
Northport
Active press good for society
In the July 6 Bangor Daily News, there was a disturbing article about how Gov. Paul LePage views our state’s press. Among his disparaging and absurd comments was this chilling statement: “The sooner the print press goes away, the better society will be.”
The presence of a free press is a fundamental cornerstone of a healthy democracy and is proclaimed and protected in our Constitution’s First Amendment. As world history has taught us over and over again, one of the most effective and fearsome weapons deployed by tyrants and despots has been the suppression or control of the press, replacing truth and information with fear and propaganda.
LePage would do well to re-read the Constitution and to take these words of John F. Kennedy to heart: “It is never pleasant to be reading things that are not agreeable news, but I would say that it is an invaluable arm of the presidency, as a check really on what is going on in the administration, and more things come to my attention that cause me concern or give me information. So I would think that … there is a terrific disadvantage not having the abrasive quality of the press applied to you daily, to an administration, even though we never like it, and even though we wish they didn’t write it, and even though we disapprove, there isn’t any doubt that we could not do the job at all in a free society without a very, very active press.”
Sara Hessler
Ellsworth
Maine deserves better than LePage
Our governor gleefully admits to lying to the press in order to mislead them, after which he blames the press for reporting on his activities.
In any other place of work this behavior would warrant a job action, even firing. We are paying him to occupy a position of leadership, and he consistently fails to do his job well or represent all of Maine’s people.
Maine deserves so much better than this.
Craig Kesselheim
Southwest Harbor
We once united against Russia
There was a time in our history when we were all Americans and it meant something. We stood up to dictators, oppression and governments that would seek to undermine our entire way of life. Evidently, that time is gone because I just witnessed an American president shake the hand of a man who is doing his utmost to bring this country to its knees and told him what an honor it was to be with him. My God, what are we now?
I feel like the world is upside down and inside out. Countries like Russia once united us as Americans and anyone who dared to embrace people like Vladimir Putin would feel the wrath of the red-blooded American. Now our politics trump even our patriotism. We watch as those who hate us are embraced and praised by the very people who are supposed to be our champions.
I don’t even know what to say anymore. It seems as if literally nothing I ever believed in this country was ever true. And to top it all off, there are literally legions of people in this country who call themselves patriots and Christians who applaud while this happens.
All I feel now is shame and disgust as I watch the world get darker and uglier.
Ed Woods
Newport