Contemplating Media & the First Amendment
The Associated Press reported this week that senators met with the CIA head Director Gina Haspel and were convinced not only was Saudis involved in the killing of Washington Post journalist Khashoggi but so was the Saudi Prince . A brief reminder of who Khashoggi was? Khashoggi was a Saudi Arabia national who sought asylum in the U.S.... Continue Reading →
Protecting the First Amendment often conflicts with protecting other values, like the right to a fair trial, fair elections and national security. In chapter 11 of Freedom for the Thought We Hate, author Anthony Lewis discusses the struggle that comes with balancing the First Amendment with other interests. Protecting the right to a fair trial... Continue Reading →
This is the picture that sparked a national uproar when, despite being taken in May, went viral on Twitter earlier this month. The photo shows a large group of mostly white high school students from Baraboo, Wisconsin posing for a prom picture by raising their arms in Nazi salutes. The picture was captioned, “We even... Continue Reading →
Free speech has its limits. There are freedoms we sacrifice within the First Amendment as a collective society. The Supreme Court has determined this in certain cases, such as the Miller v California ruling against obscene speech. Other exceptions of the First Amendment include refusing protections for child pornography ownership and production, a speech we... Continue Reading →
Over the past few weeks, those with an interest of a truly free press were keeping a close eye on the battle between the White House and CNN's White House Correspondent Jim Acosta. After the White House pulled Acosta's press pass, unheard of prior to this instance, CNN pursued legal action against the Trump administration... Continue Reading →
Towards the end of 2017, a new meme started popping up around Twitter and Tumblr with the premise of users directly interacting with the government agents surveilling them. And I'll admit, at the time I found them pretty funny. It seemed to be the nihilist, "everything sucks so we might as well make a joke... Continue Reading →
Every day, it is the job of a journalist to expose the truth. But, is ironic how while their jobs are to expose the truth, they are also expected to keep secrets. In Emily Bells’s Journalism After Snowden, she elaborates on the journalist’s need to protect the secrets of his or her sources. Along with... Continue Reading →
Living in a post-Snowden America is strange. We know about the reality of the surveillance state, we know about the NSA’s ability to track our every move, we even know about the very real possibility of our own names being one of the 1.2 million on the government watch list. We know all of these... Continue Reading →
Gab.com is a social network that promotes itself as a safe haven for free speech and an alternative to Twitter and Facebook. It was also used by the man responsible for the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting last month. In response to the shooting and wide spread criticism of the platform, Gab CEO and founder Andrew Torba... Continue Reading →
Facebook is once again in the news. According to the Times, Facebook did not disclose to congress that the Russian interference was happening much longer than they had admitted. This was a shock to their democrat "friends." In the past YouTube and Facebook were under fire because of the Russian interference during the presidential interference.... Continue Reading →
Free Press Free Speech 