Amid oh-so-clever ads for beer, cars and snack foods, one Super Bowl LIII ad stood out yesterday\u2014the sober message presented by the Washington Post: \u201cDemocracy Dies in Darkness.\u201d The ad offers an important counterpoint to the Trump administration\u2019s all-out propaganda war aimed at undermining Americans\u2019 faith in the free press\u2014simply because some media outlets have the audacity to criticize, or simply question, the president and do their jobs of holding government accountable. In an era when the democracy-defining Fourth Estate is under attack by a U.S. President sworn to uphold the Constitution\u2014which guarantees a free press\u2014the Washington Post\u2019s ad rises, essentially, to the level of an act of courage.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the ad. The narrator, in case you weren\u2019t sure, is Tom Hanks. Call it over-dramatic, if you must\u2014especially in comparison to the humorous, slapstick and feel-good tone of most other Super Bowl ads. But this is a message that needs to be heard and repeated. The words and images are a poetic tribute to a basic tenet of American democracy — freedom of the press: “Knowing empowers us. Knowing helps us decide. Knowing keeps us free.”<\/p>\n

By the way, it doesn\u2019t ask you to subscribe to the Washington Post. But, given today\u2019s dire circumstances, that\u2019s that not such a bad idea\u2014even if you don\u2019t particularly like Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post.<\/p>\n