Contemplating Media & the First Amendment
At this point, we’ve heard the major arguments as to why a universal freedom of speech is the silver lining in American culture. It isn’t so much about the ability to say as we please but rather the fear of the snowball effect that the contrary could cause that keeps us so passionate about the... Continue Reading →
Brace yourselves, this is actually a First Amendment news story that restores a little faith in humanity! According to a New Hampshire newspaper, a former spinal cord specialist and whistleblower at the Manchester VA Medical Center has just been awarded the 17th Annual Nackey S. Loeb First Amendment Award. The award was "established to honor... Continue Reading →
So far in Media and the First Amendment (COMM 320), we've learned two things about money: it's fungible, and it conveys a message. So on the topic of free speech, what kinds of donations are First Amendment dilemmas? The answer is religious ones . . . well, political ones too, but we'll save that for... Continue Reading →
While a first-reading of Vikram Amar's The First Amendment: Freedom of Speech; Its Constitutional History and the Contemporary Debate can often leave you feeling like "what did I just read?" the message behind content regulations in Part III is actually pretty relevant. The two types of content limitations presented in Amar's book are content-neutral and... Continue Reading →
We'd like to believe that ethics and morality are the founding pillars of good journalism, and in the grand scheme of things, I truly believe they are. But when leaked, private information becomes a journalist's only source, those moral pillars often seem to crumble. According to an article written for the Columbia Journalism Review, in... Continue Reading →
Samuel D. Warren and Louis D. Brandeis once wrote in the Harvard Law Review of 1890, that, “ the common law, in its eternal youth, grows to meet the new demands of society.” They were asserting that when changes occur within our economical, political, and social structures, the law, in its nature, and with justice... Continue Reading →
Free Press Free Speech 