In defense of journalism, civil liberties, and a more perfect union

Photo by Don Miller

By Eric Carlson

Sun contributor

Longtime Leelanau Enterprise reporter Eric Carlson delivered the following address at Old Settlers Park on July 4 as part of the Glen Lake Woman’s Club annual Flag Raising ceremony. Carlson spoke about his career in journalism, both locally and in conflict zones, about the importance (and sometimes inconvenience) of a free press, about civil liberties, and this fraught political moment in American history:

Thank you for that kind introduction, Mrs. Peterson, and thank you to members of the Glen Lake Woman’s Club for organizing this annual event.

Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, fellow citizens … As we gather to celebrate the birth of our great nation, I am deeply honored to stand before you not just as a retired United States Marine and a veteran of three wars, but also as someone who has devoted his life to the pursuit of truth through journalism.

On this Fourth of July, let us reflect not only on the value of military service, but also on the vital importance to our nation and to the world of a free press, especially in times of war and domestic conflict.

Before I began working as a reporter for the Leelanau Enterprise, my focus was more on war than on domestic issues. In 1975, as a young Marine combat correspondent carrying a camera, a reporter’s notebook and a firearm, my first real-world experience in war was during Operation Eagle Pull, the U.S. evacuation of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

I was on literally the second-to-last helicopter out of the country before the communist Khmer Rouge began turning Cambodia into a killing field. That was soon followed by Operation Frequent Wind, the U.S. evacuation of Vietnam.

Perhaps you’ve seen pictures in history books and documentaries showing Vietnamese helicopters being dumped into the sea from U.S. ships just offshore of Vietnam in 1975 to make room for more helicopters. If so, you can credit a 21-year Lance Corporal Carlson for lining up dozens of civilian news photographers along a catwalk on an aircraft carrier to capture those historic images.

In 1986, I received a major promotion and began serving as an official media spokesman for the Marines. In the early 1990s, during the Persian Gulf War, my immediate boss was the commanding general of the First Marine Division, the Marines’ principal ground combat unit in Operation Desert Storm.

During that war, my division revived a concept that hadn’t been tried since World War II—the embedding of civilian journalists within front-line units. I was in charge of managing the largest single pool of civilian journalists covering the ground campaign.

At least one civilian TV news crew declined to cooperate with us, however—a team led by Bob Simon of CBS News and 60 Minutes fame. Simon allegedly impersonated a high-ranking officer to slip through several checkpoints on his way to the front lines to avoid joining our media pool. Simon and his crew ended up being captured by the Iraqi Army.

CBS News in New York frantically demanded we do everything we could to retrieve Simon and his crew. Because no one else on the front lines was responsible for managing the media, it fell on me and my little team of lightly-armed Marine combat correspondents to find the wayward civilian journalists.

Our team took its Humvee as far forward as possible looking for signs of Simon and his crew, eventually coming within sight – and within firing range – of an Iraqi armored unit. Although my team quickly withdrew under fire, we could tell CBS we had made a good faith effort to catch up with their news crew.

Simon and his CBS News crew remained captives of the Iraqi Army for 40 days before they were released.

Technically, the Marines had the legal authority, under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, to detain Simon and charge him with impersonating an officer. My commanding general asked me for my recommendation on what we should do about Simon and I said, “Just let him go, sir” – which is exactly what happened.

A couple of years later, in Africa, as a civil war was raging in Somalia and innocent civilians were dying of famine on a Biblical scale, the Marines were sent in to provide security for a massive humanitarian relief effort known as Operation Restore Hope.

I was in California fighting to get a seat on an Air Force transport plane to Somalia when the first increment of Marines landed quietly in the dark on a beach near Mogadishu—only to be met by the blazing lights of a CNN television crew, ruining the Marines’ night vision and revealing their positions.

I quickly found myself on the very next plane to Somalia with orders to rein in the media. I did that by setting up a press information bureau in beautiful downtown Mogadishu, organizing daily press briefings, and hooking up civilian journalists with military units engaged in operations throughout the country.

The whole point of my relating some of my own military experience here today is this: I don’t need anyone to explain to me what a major pain in the neck a free press can be sometimes. Believe me, I know.

Even so, I decided to become a news reporter myself after I retired from the Marines in 1998. If you were paying close attention to what was going on politically or otherwise here in Leelanau County between 1998 and last year, then you may have read about much of it in the pages of the Leelanau Enterprise, often under my byline. My wife and I also raised our two children here.

Despite the vital importance of a free press in today’s world, today’s press is a fragile institution, constantly under attack from those who seek to silence dissent and suppress the truth. Today, we find ourselves in an era where misinformation spreads like wildfire, where journalists are labeled as enemies of the people, and where the very foundations of our democracy are under threat.

Right here in Leelanau County, we have election deniers in our midst, some of them serving as elected officials even as the evidence is overwhelming that our voting system is among the safest and most secure on the planet. You might have read, too, about local elected officials trying to negate the will of voters by zeroing-out voter-approved tax levies; or elected officials trying to impose their religious beliefs on all of us.

In addition, certain sheriffs in our part of Michigan have declared themselves to be so-called “Constitutional Sheriffs” and have asserted that they are—quote—“the last line of defense in protecting your civil liberties”—unquote.

I disagree with them. As much as I support law enforcement and, especially, the rule of law, I’m more inclined to agree with the principal author of our Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, who elaborated on his belief in the rights of a free press in 1787, the year our Constitution was adopted, by writing:

“The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep (the right of a free press) … Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, ”

Jefferson wrote, “I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

For me, nobody in public office—least of all sheriffs, presidents or even Supreme Court justices—represent the last line of defense in protecting our civil liberties. Rather, we the people, acting on truthful and accurate information reported by free and independent news media, are the actual last line of defense in protecting our own civil liberties.

That’s why I want to encourage everyone here to support struggling news media organizations in our community and beyond. And if you’re only paying attention to one or two news outlets, you’re probably not getting the full story.

I encourage everyone to consume a balanced diet of news from a wide variety of sources, to be more educated and discerning about which news organizations are living up to the dreams of the founders of our great nation.

I also want to encourage everyone who can to vote next month and again in November. The fate of our nation depends on it, now more than ever.

If you’re registered to vote in Suttons Bay Township here in Leelanau County, you don’t even have to vote for me. I’m already an incumbent township trustee and I’m running unopposed to retain my seat. I don’t need your vote.

But America does. Michigan does. Leelanau County does. We all do.

Let me conclude not by asking that we all put our trust in an invisible supernatural being or ask a deity to bless us. For this foxhole atheist, ending my little speech that way would be more than disingenuous.

As a humanist, I believe in We the People. Therefore, in conclusion, I will ask you to reflect on our original national motto—the one our nation’s founders adopted centuries ago—“E Pluribus Unum: Out of many—one.”

This year, let’s create a more perfect union. Let us love each other as fellow Americans despite our differences and work together to keep our bold American experiment alive in this pivotal year of 2024. Thank you very much.