Letter to the editor

Thank you so much for running “Letters from an American” by Heather Cox Richardson. As a Foreign Service Officer (now retired), I worked with journalists in developing countries who had only a faint notion of the crucial role of the press in a democracy or of democratic principles generally. In the US, we’ve had nearly 250 years to develop democratic institutions, including a robust free press, so there is no excuse for efforts by some leaders to demonize independent journalists as “the enemy of the people,” nor for anyone to believe that charge. Americans have reason to be skeptical of media outlets lying in support of partisan agendas (looking at you Fox), but to dismiss ALL journalists as political stooges is to cut off our nose to spite our face. If we want to keep our freedoms in this country, we must do everything we can to support independent journalism — it stands between us and authoritarianism.

Leigh Rieder

George Custer

+ posts

George Custer lives in Oakridge with his wife Sayre. George is a former smokejumper from his hometown of Cave Junction, a former captain in the U.S. Marine Corps. and ran a construction company in Southern California. George assumed the volunteer duties as the Editor of the Highway 58 Herald in 2022. He loves riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle, building all things wood, and playing drums on the weekends in his office.

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