By Thomas Warren III, Editor-in-Chief of the Amarillo Pioneer

I would typically use this space to discuss my thoughts on local government or something of that nature. I considered addressing the willingness of local elected officials to lie about policies that would be good for Amarillo citizens, such as moving election dates to November. I considered writing about dysfunction in the U.K. political system and the constant clashes between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn in comparison to the issues we have at home. I considered just singing the praises of Amarillo’s best and brightest, but I wanted to save that until closer to the end of the year.

Instead, I will write about a topic that I love and that has not been addressed to this point on the pages here: film.

As a film buff, I love sitting down at the multiplex and watching the tales unfold on the silver screen. I have sat through a lot of absolutely horrible movies over the past year in the cinema, such as “Men in Black: International,” while I have also watched (and re-watched) films like “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” I have traveled to see films like “The Irishman” on screen, and I have wondered why we even bother going to the theater when there are films like “Serenity” being released. I also have some favorites from the past year that are not of good quality, but are more of the “guilty pleasure” fare, such as the Liam Neeson-led “Cold Pursuit,” which is about a slow plow driver who takes on a drug cartel. It’s about as terrible as it sounds, but I love it anyway.

However, I’m not here today to talk about “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” or “Cold Pursuit.” Instead, I want to talk about a film that was influential for me and is perhaps my favorite film of all time. But, first, some back story.

In early 2018, I wrote some investigative pieces about a certain legislator who was seeking re-election and his less than sterling record on the issues that he preaches. This includes the fact that this particular elected official donated to an organization that does not exactly fit the kind of candidacy he was presenting. We called him out on it (a few times) and in turn, got a call from one of his cronies. Shortly after, we published another piece about this lawmaker’s record and got another call. This one was a bit more forceful, as it was easily understood that this lawmaker’s cronies wanted the article pulled and tried to pressure our publication to take it down. I was still relatively new to investigative reporting at the time, so it was uncharted territory for me.

That weekend, I headed to the multiplex to watch Steven Spielberg’s “The Post,” an excellent Tom Hanks-led drama about The New York Times and The Washington Post’s decision to publish excerpts from the Pentagon Papers. The move eventually led to the Nixon Administration taking the journalists to court, attempting to block further publications. The Supreme Court eventually sided with the newspapers and the Pentagon Papers were published.

I remember sitting in the theater and watching this movie for this first time, feeling like I was hit with some revelation. I sat in a room mostly full of people who were alive at the time this event took place, nearly thirty years before I was even born. Still, this story felt so real, so present, and so personal. I am a scholar of American history, so I understand the challenges faced during the American Revolution by publishers and even during certain events throughout our nation’s history. However, this experience in the cinema expanded my understanding that government officials trying to suppress publication of stories was not something new, was not something personal to me, and was not a situation where the free press had to bow down to the elected (or unelected) officials. The situation shown on screen is one in which the press fought back against the government’s attempts to suppress the truth, the government lost, and the freedom of the press won.

After walking out of the theater, I knew exactly what I had to do. First thing the next week, I published an editorial taking aim at the officials who wanted the story pulled, letting them know that that isn’t the way things work at the Pioneer. Since then, we have been fearless, even in the face of threats, controversy, and personal attacks, not just directed at our writers and staff, but also at the families of our writers and staff.

In times of challenge, I have remembered the words of Hugo Black, who wrote a concurring opinion in the New York Times v. United States case, summing up the duties of the free press.

"In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy," Black wrote. "The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people."

Even throughout the public debate about conservative or liberal points of view at the time of “The Post”’s release, I didn’t find myself consumed dissecting the public debate from the events playing out on screen. Instead, I found myself and our writers in each of the characters on screen as they stood up against the government, against the noise, and against the threats, and they won. For that reason, I am so grateful that I saw “The Post” when I did. There have been a lot of movie going experiences that I have enjoyed for some reason or another, but watching “The Post” in theaters for the first time is one that I will never forget.

Since then, we have been on the radar of the local government and lawmakers many times. From being publicly scolded by an elected official’s husband in front of City Hall to having our writers harassed online and in-person, to having our families attacked online by those angry by our reporting, the challenges of speaking truth to power haven’t stopped. But, at the same time, neither have we.

As we look ahead to 2020, I know the challenges are by no means done. We will still be challenged, we will still be attacked, we will still be ridiculed in some circles and praised in others.

In everything though, we WILL still be here.

I want to thank everyone for reading us over the past year and for supporting us over the past year. This has been a difficult year for our staff and our families, with health issues affecting almost everyone we know. However, we have continued to be here for you, to provide the news and the opinions on the events that shape our time. And, I can promise you, that we will still be here for you and for all of Amarillo come 2020.

So, as we find ourselves at the Thanksgiving holiday, I have a challenge for you. I ask that you give thanks for faith, for family, and for freedom. And, if you have a couple of free hours, consider heading to the theater. You never know what you might learn or where you might find yourself on the silver screen.

Happy Thanksgiving, Amarillo. To 2020 and beyond!