It’s so frustrating to even see a need to refresh our memories from our high school civics classes that it almost feels trite. Yet, here we are, apparently very much in need of a not-so-gentle reminder of Thomas Jefferson’s comment about the press:

“…The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

For the purposes of this post, I will substitute press as the generic word to encompass both the print and electronic media since Jefferson obviously did not foresee the influence of TV news..

For all its warts and shortcomings, were it not for the dogged pursuit of the truth by the press, the American people might never have learned about The Pentagon Papers, Watergate, Iran-Contra, Teapot Dome, The Whiskey Ring, McCarthyism, the bombing of Cambodia by Nixon and DOZENS of former and current POLITICAL SCANDALS.

So now we have an egomaniac for president who takes regular potshots at the press and while most elected officials at one time or another will butt heads with the media, Trump has taken the vitriol to a new level with quotes and actions like:

• “I would never kill them but I do hate them, and some of them are such lying, disgusting people.”
• In January 2017, right after taking office for the first time, he accused the press of being an “enemy of the American people.”
• Praised a physical attack on a reporter by Montana Rep. Greg Gianforte.
• Presided over a Department of Justice investigation in which years’ cache of email and phone records belonging to a New York Times reporter were seized in connection with a leak investigation.
• Threatened to strengthen libel laws to make it easier to sue organizations following the release of an unflattering book.
• Threatened to sue a journalist and publisher over a book that includes critical statements about him.
• Demanded the Washington Post fire a reporter over an inaccurate tweet about the crowd size at a Trump rally.
• Encouraged a lawsuit against ABC News over a retracted report, which Trump claimed caused the stock market to fall and investors to lose money.
• On the day that Russia imposed restrictions on foreign news outlets, tweeted: “CNN International is still a major source of (Fake) news, and they represent our Nation to the WORLD very poorly. The outside world does not see the truth from them!” He then promoted a contest between CNN and other outlets, apart from Fox, to see which has “the most dishonest, corrupt and/or distorted in its political coverage of your favorite President (me).”
• Said it is “frankly disturbing the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write” during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
• Continues to threaten to revoke the broadcast licenses of media companies that offer negative coverage of him.
• Had the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, call on ESPN to fire Jemele Hill for critical coverage of Trump.
• Tweeted mocking images of him body slamming a CNN reporter in a wrestling match and of his campaign running over a CNN reporter with a train.
• Oversaw a Justice Department policy review for subpoenaing media organizations in an effort to crack down on both whistleblowers and journalists.
• Pledged to a Polish leader hostile to press freedom that he would fight fake news.
• Attacked reporters during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
• Said that his mission to “drain the swamp” begins “with the fake news.”
• Reportedly asked then-FBI Director James Comey to arrest reporters who publish classified information.
• Renewed efforts to tighten libel laws in a discussion with his former chief of staff.
• Explored the prosecution of WikiLeaks after it published CIA and State Department materials.
• Accused the media of lying about his “very nice” conversation with the Australian prime minister but a leaked transcript of the call showed it was Trump who was lying.
• Urged someone to buy the New York Times to “run it correctly or let it fold.”
• Called members of the “Fake News & totally dishonest Media” crazed lunatics who have given up on the TRUTH!”
• Threatened to pull credentials of reporters for writing “negative” stories about him while admitting he considers negative media coverage to be “Fake”: “91% of the Network News about me is negative (Fake). Why do we work so hard in working with the media when it is corrupt? Take away credentials?”
• Asked for a federal investigation of “Saturday Night Live” after watching a rerun of an episode parodying him.
• Wondered why “the Networks get away with these total Republican hit jobs” without consequences.
• Attempted (unsuccessfully) to rescind the press credentials of CNN journalist Jim Acosta.
• Said that he is “entitled” to have “great” stories published about him in the New York Times.
• Praised Brazil’s authoritarian president for denouncing the “fake news.”
• Announced plans that he would boycott presidential debates held by “Fake News Networks.”

So, why am I dredging up old news? Because of this headline:

FCC chief threatens broadcasters as Trump criticizes coverage of Iran war

Trump on Sunday announced his support for his Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr who threatened (like Trump before him) to revoke broadcast licenses over what he (and Trump, of course) perceives as “negative” news coverage of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. In doing so, Trump accused media organizations of being “corrupt and highly unpatriotic.”

The really sad thing about all this is that both CBS and ABC have cratered under Trump’s threats to one of the main pillars of democracy.

The high priest of Mar-A-Lardo did not specify how reporting news as it actually occurs defines if one is unpatriotic but his words more or less echo the first inkling we at LouisianaVoice had of the willingness of certain officials to try to control the press. That was when a Louisiana legislator, Rep. Ray Garofalo Jr., in 2021 said LESSONS ABOUT SLAVERY should include “the good, the bad, the ugly.” At the time he wanted to teach all the “good” that came from slavery, Garofalo was serving as chairman of the House Education Committee.

Likewise, Texas Gov. GREG ABBOTT also spearheaded a drive in that state to direct state authorities to develop statewide “standards” against “pornography” in Texas public schools. The question that was left hanging was just who’s “standards” were going to be employed for enforcement?

Carr warned on Saturday he would deny or revoke licenses if broadcasters run what the agency deems “fake news.” He said, “Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions — also known as the fake news — have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up,” adding, “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.”

Again, who decides what the “public interest” is? I’m really not comfortable leaving that decision in the hands of a power-mad despot.

It was a headline that could only occur in Louisiana.

Two fighting roosters are ON THE LAM from the St. Landry Parish animal shelter, according to Sheriff Bobby Guidroz.

It’s not known who egged the boids on or what may have spurred them to fly the coop but sheriff’s deputies, their feathers ruffled from the whole affair, will probably comb the parish to force them to abandon their new roost. Nor was it determined whether or not there were any chicks involved as accomplices in hatching the escape plan.

The birds were among 70 fighting roosters seized in a recent raid by officials, the first such raid in the parish since cockfighting was finally outlawed in Louisiana. Early reports that a man identified only as Col. Sanders was initially involved but ultimately chickened out were denied by Guidroz.

But now, two of the roosters have been stolen from the animal shelter and no one seems to know just how the thieves managed to pull the heist off without leaving a trace. Fowl play was not immediately suspected, though it was not completely ruled out. “This is nothing to crow about,” said a disgusted Guidroz. “We’re scrambling for answers.”

That’s a bit of a reversal from the attitude taken by state officials back in the 1970s when controversy erupted over staged cockfights in St. Landry Parish.

At that time, William Guste was the cock of the walk, number one in the attorney general’s office’s pecking order, and he was charged with looking into bringing animal cruelty charges against those who held the cockfights in St. Landry.

Instead, Guste cackled that chickens weren’t animals, they were fowl, and thus did not fall under the state’s cruelty to animals statute.

And so, the sadistic “sport” went on unabated in the gret stet of Loozeraner.

Until 2008, that is, when the legislature made the practice illegal, making us the last state in the U.S. to ban the practice. Again, another legacy of which we can be so proud.

The 70 birds, seized from John Eddie Lachapelle of Opelousas, were scheduled to be euthanized but authorities are trying to ensure that Lachapelle bears the cost of housing and caring for them until the death sentences are carried out.

Naturally, everything is not as cut and dried as it might be. Earlier this year, the Parish Council took up a proposal to SEEK AN EXEMPTION to the state’s cockfighting ban, providing a beakon of hope for advocates, so to speak. The council meeting attracted a packed crowd of supporters who insisted that the practice is part of Cajun and Creole heritage, not to mention the economic development cockfighting events could bring to rural areas like Sunset, once home to a well-known cockfighting pit. The money exchanged in the betting ain’t chickenfeed, after all.

Guidroz said he was “disappointed” that parish leaders even raised the possibility of repealing the ban when cockfighting cannot be legalized at the local level.

Meanwhile, authorities are searching for any nugget of information that might lead to the whereabouts of the fugitive roosters.

Yes it is; it’s precisely what you voted for…

We can always—ALWAYS—count on a few unforeseen surprises when the Louisiana Legislature is in session. That’s a certainty, along with death and taxes.

Throw in a simultaneous congressional race between two legislators, grab some popcorn and sit back to watch the show.

Fifth District Rep. Julia Letlow is seeking a promotion in challenging Sen. Bill Cassidy who is up for reelection this year. Accordingly, that leaves Letlow’s seat up for grabs and three Republican legislators, Rep. Michael Echols of Monroe and Sens. Blake Miguez of New Iberia and Rick Edmonds of Baton Rouge, and state Board of Regents member Misti Cordell, have entered the sweepstakes with nothing really to lose because the unsuccessful candidates will still have a job. Either Letlow or Cassidy, on the other hand, is going to have to seek a different livelihood.

Aye, but here’s the rub, as Billy Wayne Shakespeare once said: One of the candidates for Letlow’s seat, Miguez, has secured the endorsement of Yellow Potato Trump and Echols wants it so badly that he even submitted a bill, HB 221, to name the as-yet unbuilt but proposed new Mississippi River bridge in Baton Rouge after ol’ Cankle Ankles.

Rep. Michael Echols (R-Monroe)

If that doesn’t do the trick, what will?

Two stories that appeared Wednesday in THE GUARDIANand THE ATLANTIC, maybe, both of which revealed that Miguez had been accused of rape nearly 20 years ago.

Sen. Blake Miguez (R-New Iberia)

On the other hand, that could serve to solidify Trump’s endorsement, but that’s another story.

The Guardian received a response from Miguez’s campaign by providing an email dated Feb. 24 in which the accuser’s father proclaimed that his daughter was a “liar and has a drug problem.” Miguez’s campaign said it had the father’s permission to share the email, which was apparently sent some 19 years after the accusation was made against Miguez.

The Guardian story said the rape accusation was reported to local law enforcement the same day of the alleged assault, but never disclosed to the public. That would have been the beleaugured Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Department because the New Iberia Police Department was DISBANDED in 2004 for more than a decade and its duties assumed by then-Sheriff Louis Ackal whose department at the time was preoccupied with crackdowns in the black community.

The Atlantic story was a bit more specific. It said the accusations against Miguez were made by his former girlfriend. The police report filed at the time, the woman told police how Miguez had sex with her even though she told him no, and then followed her when she fled the home. She told police that she hid behind a car near a convenience store until a friend arrived and then she called 911She was taken by deputies to a hospital for a rape-kit examination, the report said. Miguez was then 25 years old at the time and was detained and questioned. He was released after the woman, then 22, said she did not want to press charges. “I called 911 ‘cause I honestly was/am scared!” she wrote in a voluntary statement to deputies.

Trump’s people are aware that there was a “massive bomb” about to be released soon after he made his endorsement, though no one was aware just what was coming.

Miguez did not return an email from LouisianaVoice seeking comment but Echols did give us a call.

We asked him if he was aware of the stories in the two publications and “Did you, your campaign or someone on your behalf leak either of these stories?”

“All I know about them is what I read in those liberal papers,” he said. ‘Neither I nor my campaign had anything to do with them going public, although I’d heard about the story earlier.”

He called the story, if true, “damning” to Miguez, adding, “I sincerely hope it’s not true. I don’t want something like this to cloud the race.”

Echols has not been shy about attacking Miguez on another matter, however. “He’s a CARPETBAGGER,” he said of his opponent. “He doesn’t even live in the 5^th District.”

While residency is not a requirement in Louisiana congressional races, it is significant that Miguez is from New Iberia, which is in Louisiana’s 3^rd Congressional District, currently represented by Rep. Clay Higgins. In fact, the 3^rd and 5^th Districts are separated for most of their boundaries by the 4^th District. New Iberia is “about 100 miles from the nearest border with the 5^th District,” Echols said.

Defense Secretary Pete Hogsbreath’s staff took issue with photos taken in a rare briefing last week and decided to shut out press photographers from two subsequent news conferences. (I Betcha it wasn’t the “staff” that got its drawers in a knot.)