It’s a question of ethics: Our White House shows that it has none | Opinion

I have waited to comment on last month’s arrests of former CNN anchor Don Lemon, independent journalist Georgia Fort and Minnesota-based civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong, in connection with a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a St. Paul, Minnesota, church where the pastor is reported to be acting director of the local ICE field office.

This didn’t happen in Kansas City, but it’s possible the outcome could affect the news and information we all get in the future. And, no doubt, your trusted journalists everywhere are under attack and have been for years. But it picked up much steam when President Donald Trump began his “fake news” mantra during his first term, and has continued getting worse since his reelection. So, it’s really important.

In an arraignment on Friday, Lemon and the two others pleaded not guilty to the federal charges lobbed against them. Lemon has consistently maintained, even while reporting live from the church, that he was not a part of the protest but rather a journalist documenting it.

As a journalist and someone who rarely misses an opportunity to attend Sunday morning service at the church where I am a member, I have different feelings about the arrest of reporters doing their job compared to the arrest of a protester disrupting a church service. And then there’s the way the White House responded to the latter by putting out a doctored photo of Levy Armstrong’s arrest.

It’s a matter of ethics. Most journalists, at least the ones I know, have them. The White House under this administration has shown it has none.

Many have been talking about the Lemon arrest, so I’ll join the chorus to reiterate that arresting journalists in this country is a bad precedent-setting attack on the First Amendment.

Let me note again that I think the journalists’ arrests and the attorney’s arrest are in two different categories. Levy Armstrong was protesting, and she hasn’t said otherwise. But the journalists were doing their jobs to document the action.

Imagine what we would not know — what would remain in darkness — were it not for reporters showing up, announced or unannounced, to record what is going on.

It’s not hard to imagine the stories that we would have been fed, and left for us to believe, about what happened in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, had unbiased journalists not been on the scene to document the truth.

Even with reporters recording the scene, which many of us watched unfold in real time on television, those involved in the rioting or the orchestration of it have tried to spin the story to falsely say that rioters, who caused the injury of about 140 law enforcement officers, were actually members of the left-wing anti-fascist and anti-racist political movement antifa, or that they were just tourists visiting the Capitol building. Both narratives were untrue.

After Levy Armstrong’s arrest, the White House put out a digitally altered photo of her — adding tears streaming down her cheeks and her mouth flung open to make her look weak and scared, I assume. Literally lying about what happened. The original photo, made public by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, showed Levy Armstrong composed, stoic, no tears.

Altering the original photo was not only unnecessary, but was also unethical. And in my opinion, that’s why we need journalists documenting such moments. Especially now, when we know our government seems bent on spreading false information rather than telling the American people the truth, when the truth — she was arrested — is enough.

I’ve covered many events inside churches. Most of the time, I was invited or I had at least told church leaders I was coming. It was never my intent to disrupt but rather to observe, and most times, no one even knew I was in the room. But I have shown up uninvited and unannounced at school protests. And if school leaders asked me to leave, I would do so, or at least move to public property — ethically, no question.

The federal criminal code — in the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act — definitely prohibits using force, threats or physical obstruction to interfere with people exercising their right to religious freedom at a place of worship. So Levy Armstrong, who in addition to being a lawyer is an activist, had probably weighed that against how much she felt a need to protest ICE. Protesters often do so knowing their actions could land them in police custody.

Journalists move quickly, go to the scene and assume they are protected by freedom of the press law, preventing the government from censoring, punishing or controlling news publication.

I don’t think protesters should be allowed to disrupt what for me is one of the precious moments of my week — my Sunday morning worship — but the disruption is the point.

I also think the Lemon and Fort arrests were nothing more than a power play of an administration that is desperate to muzzle dissenters and tear down any trust people have in the news media. They want to operate without ethics or moral consciousness in the dark.

But I do believe, and maybe I’m too optimistic, that as long as the press continues to document blatant disregard for American freedoms ethically — and because this administration has shown it can not be trusted with the truth — light will shine, the truth be told, and American people will be the better for it.

Off The Vine

Below are stories about culture and identity from communities in the Kansas City metro area. Find more stories on culture and identity from Star reporter J.M. Banks.

• This Black-owned Kansas City engineering firm is behind the rise of some of KC’s most iconic and well know structures including the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, Current’s soccer stadium, and the new KCI terminal. Banks has the story and the firm’s history.
• Black artists in Kansas City are having a moment including gaining exhibition space in places they had not always had access to, including a First Friday in the galleries in the Crossroads. Banks writes about what it all means for the future of these artists and Kansas City’s greater access to their work.

Around The Vine

• You can support the Black Archives of Mid-America by attending the Annual Black History luncheon from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Feb. 21 at the Marriott Downtown.
• Get ready for Pop is Black, a concert with KC’s top Black pop artists from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 28 at the Zhou B. Art Center, 1801 E. 18th St., Kansas City.
• The Black Movie Hall of Fame will open in Historic 18th and Vine Jazz District soon, and in preparation The Black Archives, 1722 E. 17th Terrace is presenting “The Life of a Film Critic,” a lecture at 6 p.m. on Feb. 27.

Vine Picks

• Jesse Jackson died this week and got me to thinking about the two times I got a chance to spend some time talking with him. I wrote about those moments and touched on some of the greatness of his life.
• As ICE raids in Minneapolis are set to ease, anti-ICE advocates report seeing an increase in such raids in parts of Lawrence, where this week five people were stopped, handcuffed and detained by agents. Star reporter Eleanor Nash looks at why local law enforcement wasn’t informed.
• A Taiwanese baking master is shifting gears to move to the United States and open her own spot. Reporter Jenna Thompson has the scoop on where and when this multicultural bakery will settle in the Kansas City area.
• This Grammy winner will make his return to Kansas City. The rapper regarded as one of the greatest hip-hop artists of his generation is coming to the T-Mobile Center. Find out who and when, and other details in this story by reporter Rashad Alexander.
• The mother of Rashee Rice’s two children has filed a lawsuit in Dallas County, Texas, and is seeking $1 million in damages from the Kansas City Chiefs receiver. Sports writer Blair Kerkhoff has all the details on the allegations against Rice.

Your voice matters to us. What local issues do you want to hear discussed in On The Vine? Let me, Mará Rose Williams, The Star’s senior opinion columnist, know directly at mdwilliams@kcstar.com. Thank you for reading.

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