Patriot games.

• Author: Conniff, Ruth
• Position: The Word from Washington - Public journalism

Since September 11, I've been asked a couple of times about my patriotism and that of my fellow lefties and journalists. At a recent TV-produced town meeting I wrestled with my answer. Despite the sign at the end of my block urging me and my neighbors to fly our flags, I knew my family wouldn't put out the stars and stripes. It's not something I'd had to explain to myself. But thinking about explaining it to a larger audience took me aback.

Some lefties I know--especially Democratic politicians--instantly know their answer to the patriotism question. It is, after all, a question about loyalty, and you can't be a successful politician if you can't pass the loyalty test. So they say yes, absolutely. And then they go on to define patriotism in their own way--defending the Bill of Rights, democracy, and the American tradition of dissent. It's a sensible public stance. But I think a lot of us, if we admit the truth, are put off by the word "patriotism." It brings to mind the people in my hometown who pulled up lawn chairs to watch the military parade at the end of the Gulf War, applauding and eating hot dogs as helicopters zoomed overhead. Patriotism has got to be, as my dad says, more than hanging out a flag and then sitting on your ass watching jets bomb Afghanistan.

But that is, sadly, the position we're in. Instead of tapping Americans' desire to do something civic-minded in the wake of the World Trade Center disaster, our leaders insisted that we go back to our regular business, even as they warned us of imminent further attacks. It's especially sad that a lot of journalists have little to do but wear flag lapel pins and read Pentagon press releases about the war and the progress of military tribunals.

Just as the Bush Administration is announcing that "defending our way of life" means supporting these star chamber court proceedings, curtailing civil liberties, and letting law enforcement listen in on conversations between lawyers and their clients, journalists seem to have given up their critical stance and decided that being a P.R. wing of government is their proper war-time function.

Walter Isaacson issued an edict to his staff at CNN, telling them not to overemphasize civilian casualties in Afghanistan and to "balance" the reports with reminders of the World Trade Center death toll. All the major networks agreed not to run Osama bin Laden's videotaped messages, not just because they might include coded communications with terrorist...