Media and Missouri: What the heck is going on?
What in the heck is going on with the police in Ferguson, Mo., and journalists? The St. Louis suburb has been the scene of peaceful protests and charged emotions, and nightly chaos and occasional...
View ArticleFCC study: Necessary report or ‘national news nanny’?
The First Amendment establishes our right to a press free from intrusion, regulation or intimidation by the government. As to a right to be free from questions by a national “news nanny,” it’s all in...
View ArticleBloggers enjoy First Amendment protection against libel suits
A website that castigates others as “evil doers” and “thugs” has exactly the same First Amendment protection as USA TODAY and the New York Times – and that’s a good thing. In a landmark decision on...
View ArticleCivility: Let’s try that free-speech option in 2014 in public life
The First Amendment protects our freedom to say and write just about anything we want — but that doesn’t mean we ought to, particularly in public life. The difference rests between “can” and “should.”...
View ArticleWhen and why we need to hear 911 calls
The word “restraint” and the First Amendment usually exist in uneasy tension. The 45 words of the First Amendment don’t include it. The Pentagon Papers case in 1971 settled the issue of “prior...
View ArticleReporting JFK’s death – 50 years of facts, conspiracy theories
The commemoration on Nov. 22 of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is also a reminder – a stark and somber one, to be sure – of journalism as some call it: “the...
View ArticleWho holds the news media accountable? We all do
Given that the First Amendment precludes the government from being an actual “watchdog on news media,” who else steps in to call the news media to account? In today’s world, increasingly it is...
View ArticleOn today’s card: national security vs. public’s right to know
News is swirling these days around a complex mix of national security issues, leaks of classified information, and First Amendment protections for a free press amid the new world of digital journalism....
View ArticleWith Post purchase, Bezos has chance to remake newspaper model
Jeff Bezos made it clear in founding Amazon.com that he can compete in the marketplace. We’ll just have to wait and see if he can, and will, do the same thing in the marketplace of ideas — that equally...
View ArticleSecond try at a shield law echoes the first
An irony of timing twice has put U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning in the headlines at critical moments in gaining congressional approval of a federal shield law that would protect journalists and their...
View ArticleFreedom to report the news requires the freedom to gather it
Freedom to report the news requires the freedom to gather it. In the months ahead, that basic concept – so central to the First Amendment’s protection of a free press – will also be at the heart of the...
View ArticleArresting journalists-at-work is a double-negative
Governnment surveillance of news media operations ranging from The Associated Press to Fox News has made national headlines for more than month now. But there’s an ongoing government-press conflict...
View ArticleTragedies reshape free speech, free press
Two national tragedies separated by six years and a day – the April 15 bombing at the Boston Marathon and the April 16, 2007, mass shooting at Virginia Tech University – also are notable in marking how...
View ArticleMaking the case for cameras in the Supreme Court
The disputed subject of placing television cameras in the U.S. Supreme Court has evoked passion for decades on both sides of the argument, with – no surprise – the justices’ “no” winning out....
View ArticleWhite House threats and regrets: A little perspective
Any time a “very senior person” at the White House tells any reporter that the journalist will regret expressing critical comments about the administration, it’s worth noting. Reports of such a threat...
View ArticleRestrictions on paparazzi take toll on First Amendment
It’s open season on paparazzi in celebrity-laden states as legislatures gear up to protect the rich and famous. Most recently, the Hawaii legislature was so grateful that Steven Tyler purchased a home...
View ArticleBase locations, drones present challenges for free press
Much attention has been focused in recent days on the Obama administration’s semi-secret “drone” program and on reports of covert surveillance and lethal attacks on terrorist targets in the Middle East...
View ArticleMisfire: Gun-permit controversy leads to flawed legislation
When The Journal News, a suburban New York newspaper, published the names of gun-permit holders late last month, the backlash was immediate. “This is CRAZY!! Why in the world would you post every...
View ArticleFirst Amendment predictions for 2013 include disputes over leaks
Courts have determined that fortunetelling is protected as free speech, so let’s freely indulge in some First Amendment-related predictions for 2013: Given that there is no major lineup of First...
View ArticleAfter Newtown: the real toll of ‘journalistic bedlam’
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so much flawed reporting as in the news coverage surrounding the horrific school shootings in Newtown, Conn. Errors abounded. News organizations identified the wrong man as...
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