Kane citizens free press series#
In 1919, in a series of articles in the Atlantic, he cast a cynical eye over the sensationalist headlines of the commercial press and the rise of wartime censorship and propaganda. Americans are taking a closer look at the free press they have long lionized, and they do not particularly like what they see.Īlmost a hundred years ago, a young Walter Lippmann was similarly disillusioned with the nation’s press. And since the 2016 elections, fears about fake news have proliferated. Meanwhile, the news media has struggled to report on the activities of the secretive security state during the War on Terror-when inside sources share such information, they risk prosecution for illegal leaking. With advertising revenues collapsing, newspapers have been forced to lay off staff, if not close their doors. The “mainstream media” is a regular whipping boy in populist political rhetoric. As a result, First Amendment rights are more protected today than at any time in American history.
For decades, a broad political consensus had presumed that a press free from government interference was the sine qua non of democratic liberty a stronger First Amendment would mean a stronger democracy. In recent years, the relationship between First Amendment rights and American democracy has become unsettled. Courtesy Library of Congress The Inadequacy of American Press Freedom Sam Lebovic
0 kommentar(er)
