One of the most uncomfortable and challenging places to live is in the glass house of a public figure.
I know.
As a journalist for 54 years, I’ve lived inside transparent walls.
Is it easy?
Not always, but this is the career that I’ve chosen.
What is a public figure?
For the answer, attorney David Hudson, who is an expert on such matters and the First Amendment, referred me to Gertz v. Robert Welch, 418 U.S. 323 (1974).
Supreme Court Justic Lewis Powell opined, “The communications media are entitled to act on the assumption that public officials … have voluntarily exposed themselves to increased risk of scrutiny.”
But you don’t have to be an elected official to be a public figure. Famous folks and appointed officials can be, too. Even a private citizen can evolve into a public figure. An example would be that individual becoming an outspoken gadfly.
What’s a gadfly?
One description is a person who “annoys others, especially, by rousing them from complacency.” I guess that qualifies me as a gadfly, and I’ve known my share of others. One whom I admired most was the late H.J. Westberry. He made it his mission to hold elected officials accountable.
Other than a newspaper reporter, H.J. was often the only citizen attending Wayne County budget meetings. He was fearless in annoying the commissioners. His letters to the editor were razor-sharp. H.J. wanted to rouse other taxpayers to pay attention. In doing so, he became a public figure.
My high school principal was a public figure, too. C.E. (Charles) Bacon wasn’t bashful about speaking out. At the time, I knew zilch about the First Amendment.
I can still hear him saying, “I may not agree with what you say, but I will fight to my death for your right to say it.” As a high schooler, I thought that was noble. In college, I learned he was paraphrasing Frenchman Voltaire.
H.J. and Charles died before the explosion of internet communications that pumps steroids into our constitutional right of free speech. But the pair wouldn’t have hidden behind walls of anonymity, where growlers often get ugly, real ugly.
You might ask, “Is that fair?”
According to the Supreme Court, comments don’t have to be fair. And that means the current laws make it difficult to libel a public figure. However, President Donald Trump is testing that. If people criticize him, he’s apt to haul them to court. (For examples, ask ABC and the New York Times.) Or, at a minimum, call them “corrupt,” a “scumbag” or a “whack job.” But, hey, he’s exercising his First Amendment rights, too.
Over decades of expressing my opinions, I have had plenty of hurtful barbs hurled at me. “Imbecile” is one of the kinder insults. Hateful comments can sting if I let them.
Once, when I was getting skewered, the late Farnell O’Quinn advised, “That’s why God gives you two ears. One ear to let it go in, and another to let it go out.”
Fayetteville’s Dr. Ferrol Sams wrote some of my favorite novels. The late physician also had a “novel” retort to some of his critics. In The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he said, “A man is judged by the stature of his enemies. I wish that more of mine had been giants rather than bleep ants.” You never got in the last word with Sambo.
I’m not that clever.
But if I had let every mean-spirited criticism fester, I would be an ulcerated wreck. Over the years, I’ve experienced “the good, the bad and the ugly” comments. As a public figure, I developed a strategy to help me sleep well in my proverbial glass house.
I concentrate on the “good” to plump my pillow.
But Farnell’s two-ears reminder helps me snore, too.
dnesmith@cninewspapers.com