In 1789, representatives from the 13 original states gathered in Philadelphia to craft a new document to replace the cumbersome Articles of Confederation. The document those founders created lives on today as the foundation of our federal republic.

The U.S. Constitution gave equal strength to the central government and to the sovereign states by making sure that power to each entity was derived from the people. This was a novel governing concept that the world had never seen before, and nobody was quite sure if it would be a successful experiment.

The first additions to the U.S. Constitution were Amendments 1-10 in what became commonly known as the Bill of Rights. One of those foundational rights was freedom of the press. A free press was intended to protect the people with accurate information about the government’s actions. A free press was supposed to be the watchdog for the people, not the mouthpiece of political parties.

Today, however, we are not receiving accurate, timely information from the press. Instead, I believe the media is facilitating — even fabricating — the news we receive and, aided by big tech companies in Silicon Valley, is able to dangerously censor the flow of information to the people.

Misinformation, restricted data, political censorship and fake news have given way more power to those who possess the microphone in our culture than the Bill of Rights ever envisioned. The most obvious example of this information obfuscation is how the media has paralyzed America and Summit County with death and fear over the past year with inflammatory rhetoric and politicization of the pandemic that is keeping our country, state and county locked down and our people under government control.

Now that Operation Warp Speed has made vaccines available with light at the end of the tunnel, you would think the reporting would be entering an upbeat phase. Instead, headlines from the Virginian-Pilot to the San Francisco Chronicle are still blaring about the deadly pandemic and surging cases, saying the virus is out of control and making similar illusions to overstated nationwide suffering.

The negative media distortions have become so commonplace that I believe the average man on Main Street in Summit County is overwhelmed with a daily sense of dread, making him unjustifiably fearful of a fatal outcome if he leaves his house.

The U.S. Constitution was written to give equal weight to the national government and the individual state governments. Accordingly, all 50 states independently implemented and directed their respective pandemic policies. In every state, including Colorado, governors and county officials were responsible for operational limitations at businesses, school closings, stay-at-home orders and mask mandates.

I believe the press merely acted as cheerleaders for these ineffective lockdowns instead of as investigative journalist watchdogs of the peoples’ best interests.

That alarming lack of journalistic curiosity became the pervasive methodology in advancing the left’s goal of defeating Donald Trump’s reelection at all costs — even if it meant creating extremely harmful health and social side effects in otherwise healthy populations.

Recent research from the Great Barrington Declaration, which is endorsed by over 50,000 medical and scientific professionals and 700,000 concerned citizens worldwide, substantiates anecdotal data from around the world showing that lockdowns don’t eliminate the virus and don’t stop the virus from spreading.

Yet nothing but crickets from the media either challenging or confirming this scientific research as they chose not to jeopardize their elitist support of statist liberal Democrat politicians who control our major cities, including Denver.

If Summit County keeps our economy locked down even after highly vulnerable populations are vaccinated, they will extend failed policies that are destroying our businesses. The silent media will be guilty of continued professional neglect by allowing this malfeasance to persist.

The First Amendment freedom of the press provides protection to the people from overreach by a tyrannical government. But now, rather than the solution, a complicit liberal media is the problem.

Kim McGahey’s column “Conservative Common Sense” publishes Tuesdays in the Summit Daily News. McGahey is a real estate broker, tea party activist and Republican candidate. He has lived in Breckenridge since 1978. Contact him at kimmcgahey@gmail.com.