The media is absolutely essential to the functioning of a democracy. It's not our job to cozy up to power. We're supposed to be the check and balance on government.

During a news conference, when he was standing with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President [Donald] Trump responded to a question from an Israeli reporter about the rise in anti-Semitic attacks - by boasting about his election victory.

So it is fair to ask, why not address the threat of climate change when it is still possible? Asad Rehman, of the international environmental group Friends of the Earth, who was in New York for the climate march, told me, “If we can find the trillions [of dollars] we’re finding for conflict whether there’s been the invasion in Iraq or Afghanistan or now the conflict in Syria, then we can find the kind of money that’s required for the transformation that will deliver clean, renewable energy.”

While law-abiding Muslims are forced to hide in their homes, and animal-rights activists are labeled as terrorists for undercover filming of abusive treatment at factory farms, right-wing hate groups are free to organize, parade, arm themselves to the hilt and murder with chilling regularity. It’s time for our society to confront this very real threat.

In the meantime, it just makes it a little harder to smile. But so does the world.

Independent media can go to where the silence is and break the sound barrier, doing what the corporate networks refuse to do.

The U.S. news media have a critical role to play in educating the public about climate change.