Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Brian Greenspun on how cynicism can lead to distrust that papers must guard against

It is really a question of trust.

And the way things have been going in this country for the past three decades, it appears that trust is something in decreasing supply. I understand why people have become so much more cynical than they should be.

Everywhere we turn there is some radio or television "host" who is pushing a political agenda that demands that the listeners be "scared straight" into the open arms of one political party or another. They do this by hammering incessantly on our political leaders and their decisions in a way that causes regular folks to question not only those decisions but also, more dangerously, their decision-making.

And, as if on some kind of perverted cue, an elected leader or two is caught with his hand in the cookie jar giving credence to those who rant for a living and rave when someone does something wrong. So what is an ordinary citizen to do? Grow more cynical about government with each and every day.

I am saddened by that very thought because it brings out the worst in each of us and prevents us from doing and being our best. Yet that is the world in which we live, and it will only get better when good people will it so.

I witnessed an extraordinary event this past Thursday night. In some small measure it renewed my faith in an innate goodness of people, a desire of most, if not all, to do what their hearts say is right rather than that which they have been taught by others to believe and which they know to be wrong.

There was a Jewish Federation of Las Vegas meeting at which a man named Walid Shoebat spoke about his life as a PLO terrorist and the turn he took toward his new life as an ardent Zionist. He went from a teenage boy who learned in his Arab country that Abraham, Moses and Jesus were Palestinians aligned with the anti-Jewish, kill-the-Israelis-and-go-to-heaven crowd, to a man who is convinced and who is doing his best to convince others that the only way to have peace in the Middle East is to find a way to change the hearts of young Arabs. And the way to do that is to teach them the truth rather than the lies that have filled the textbooks of their kindergartens and their colleges since practically the beginning of time.

Walid is right but his approach is nearly impossible given the fact that our country and others in a position to influence Arab actions have steadfastly refused to interfere with the smoothly running propaganda machines of the Arab Middle East for fear that the oil used to grease those wheels will not be readily available to grease our own. All that may be changing, but it is ever so slight and ever so slow.

But that is not what I want to discuss today. My issue of trust is far more simple, and it is something that has even spilled into the news columns of this newspaper.

That same night, my dear and old friend, Judge Michael Cherry asked me "what that story was all about?" He referred to a Sun story that morning in which we reported that he had raised $500,000 for his campaign for the Supreme Court but which wouldn't be needed because he was running unopposed.

In all the years I have known him and in all the years he has performed his duties as an elected judge in Clark County, he has never asked me about any story involving him. This was the first. And I didn't have an answer.

The best I could think of was that we, too, had succumbed to the idea that money and politics was inherently bad. And to do that, we had to lose our trust in elected leadership. For one implication of that story could have been that by raising so much money, Judge Cherry had somehow allowed those who gave it to him to have some untoward influence on his decision-making responsibility.

Only if you read to the end of the story did you learn that there was precious little the judge could do with the money he did not need (because we learned that no one filed against him - after he had already raised the bulk of the money) except give it to charity or save it for six years when and if he decided to run for re-election. Or give it back, which is blasphemy in most political circles.

I am not quarreling with the reporter's effort to explain the high cost of a judge running for election to the Supreme Court, but I am concerned that we, too, have fallen prey to the disease of mistrusting and, by doing so, misjudging those who deserve better. And if that is true, I bear responsibility.

Clearly, a newspaper must be always alert to skullduggery and worse among our elected officials. That is our primary role in life. But we also have to do it responsibly - unlike our brethren in the radio and television talk world.

Judge Cherry is a fine man and an excellent judge. I have known him since he moved to town four decades ago, and I have followed his legal and judicial career, which has been performed at the highest level.

The fact that Nevada has decided to elect judges rather than create some equally flawed method of appointing them has been a credit to our belief that the people, ultimately, are best able to decide upon their leaders. That means money is needed for elections and that means the people who live here are called upon for their support.

Absent any other reason to think a judge has gone off the tracks, it is only the seeds of distrust that cause us to question the integrity of that process. And we, the people, have planted those seeds all by ourselves.

So, it is up to us to pull them like weeds and create an environment in which we can trust those we elect to serve. We can start by not falling prey to the cynicism spread freely by those with agendas contrary to a democratic society. Or agendas selfishly aimed at advancing some at the expense of others.

Most newspapers are better than that. We have to be because this country's notion of democracy depends upon not only a free press but also a responsible one.

The Sun is proud to be one of those newspapers. And you can trust me on that.

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