My letter appears in The Nation

(Cross-posted on Jacob's Politics.)

The Nation is America's most respected Liberal magazine.

Recently they published an article "Lap Dogs of the Press" by Helen Thomas, the famed 86 year old journalist who is in the White House press Corps.

I wrote this letter to her, care-off The Nation which published her piece.

Dear Helen,

I have not emailed you for a long time but your stand in the White House and your powerful articles continue to inspire me almost daily. I did not want to wait till your next birthday to send you this one!

Way back in the early 50s, I learnt my basic journalism, when I was less than 10 years old, in the arms and at the feet of my grandfather, the doyen of Kerala, the late K. C. Mammen Mappillai.


The late K. C. Mammen Mappillai

Your recent article "Lap Dogs of the Press" certainly took me back to the days when he, and many other journalists, had to spend time in jail under trumped up charges for supporting the Indian National Congress and the Freedom Movement in India.

Gandhi, Nehru, are the well-known "journalists" that may spring to mind, but it was the small fearless newspaper editors and their journalists, like my grandfather, that had to undergo much hardship to educate their readers. Without them and their locally "respected" words, the messages of the freedom fighters would never have been heard by the masses.

Today, this 118 year old newspaper (THE MALAYALA MANORAMA) is the largest circulating one in India since some of the present editors are committed to the well-being of the people who make up its readership.

Thank you for this article which, to me, really raises the primary issue of where our journalists learn journalism, and how they practice it.

Let us hope that a few "journalists", like you, are produced in the years to come!

Best regards

Jacob

I was informed yesterday that The Nation had published an edited version of this letter in their May 8th 2006 issue, which was released online yesterday.

Unfortunately, you have to be subscriber to The Nation to read the letter online.

If it were not journalists like Helen Thomas, who fearlessly question those in power, the world would be headed for a totalitarian fascist society!