The Rights Of Freedom Of Speech

Having served nearly thirty years at CBS News, Mr. Goldberg had earned a reputation as one of the most original writers and thinkers in broadcast journalism. However, when he observed his own industry, he realized the liberal media had completely missed their mission to give honest news. After years of sharing his observations and promoting more balanced reportings, Goldberg soon realized that no one listened because they believed they were doing the right thing. The liberal bias continued, therefore Bernard Goldberg decided to take the situation into his own hands and expose the distortion of the media himself. Goldberg’s breathtaking and shocking best seller book, Bias, reveals the close-mindedness of the news culture and their mission to entertain rather than share facts.

Stories sometimes are true and sometimes they are false but it is up to the public to believe in what is right and what is wrong. In this day and age, where information is available at the touch of a mouse, it’s not surprising that the media is a particularly dominant and powerful

Consequently, the political sphere is now being colonised by the media, and politics has begun re-orientating itself to satisfy the logic of media organisations (Meyer, 2002, p. 71). Therefore, the media are active participants in the policymaking process and the ability to stimulate change or maintain the status quo depends on their choice of subject or policy issue and how they frame it. Active investigative reporting attempts to shape policy outcomes, but this does not necessarily mean that it always represents the most successful approach for gaining policy changes (Spitzer, 1993, p. 7). In fact, sometimes passive, straight reporting can have a greater influence on policy choices. When this occurs, media independence is largely bypassed, as the news generated depends solely on the information released (as public relations material) from legitimate news sources. For example, in the United States, White House staff routinely make ‘leaks’ - expressively to influence policy decisions (Davis, 1992, p. 143; Robinson, 2001, p. 948). Robinson noted that journalists regard “leaks… as indispensable to their work” and that they are aware of their use by officials in return for scoops (2001, p. 949).

“Words of Fire,” by Anthony Collings, details the lives of different journalists in regards to free press and covering potentially dangerous stories. Anthony Collings is a former CNN reporter who shifted his focus from reporting to telling the story of journalists who have come under fire in a power struggle between government and free press. Collings puts free press into a spectrum, on one side there is the United States, where the press is largely free, and on the other side there are places like North Korea or China where press is largely restricted by the government. Collings does not focus on these extremes, but rather the places in the middle where there is an ongoing struggle between state power.

Freedom of speech is a fundamental human right. Whether or not on a college campus, people (especially college students) should have the right to speak freely. Everyone does have the right to speak freely, because it is one of the twenty-seven amendments. Colleges all around the United States are now home to many restrictions on free speech. For example, the idea and use of “free speech zones” has made its way to colleges everywhere. A “free speech zone” is a sidewalk sized place where students are allowed to speak their minds freely on college campuses. I know what you’re thinking. This sounds ridiculous. Why are there specific places for people to speak their minds? Aren’t colleges suppose to be a place where students speak their minds and learn new things? Universities should not be able to put any restrictions on free speech.

In, “One Man’s Rumer I Another Man’s Reality, Gregory Rodriguez, an author of the Los Angeles Times he argues about the power of broadcasting the truth and its effect on the people. As a result, “can false rumors and off-the-wall theories be corrected by broadcasting the truth” (Gregory Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times, September 28, 2009)?

Though America entered the 20th century with unbridled confidence and optimism, many of its citizens were not as enthusiastic. Working long hours in frightful conditions for little pay, they were exploited by the massive industrial trusts that powered the economy. They had no voice until a group of fearless journalists, the muckrakers, took up their cause. The impact of the muckrakers’ earned them a nickname and helped start the Progressive Era in the United States.muckraker was used in the Progressive Era to characterize reform-minded American journalists who attacked established institutions and leaders as corrupt. They typically had large audiences in some popular magazines. The modern term is investigative journalism, and investigative journalists today are Just as the muckrakers became well known for their crusades,

The hallmark of American democracy is the nation’s vigilant press. However, intense rhetoric against Journalists saw an increase during the recent

While many may see investigative journalism as essential and an expression of our first amendment rights, when over sensationalized it can cast a dark cloud over an entire country.

Hosts, reporters, and commentators dug at President Trump and his administration in almost every single story aired over the course of an hour and a half. MSNBC host Rachel Maddow eluded that Trump’s alleged ties with Russia “will come out soon,” but she omitted the word alleged, a move that could trigger a slander lawsuit. This framing by both MSNBC and Fox advance a political agenda. If a media consumer were to watch only one of these outlets, that consumer would hear only one view on the world. I believe these partisan outlets can cause closed-mindedness and advocate against those with different beliefs to work together.

In the article “GOP-Fox Circus Act”, Reed Richardson argues that although both the GOP and Fox have conservative political values, they are ultimately harmful to each other’s agendas because of their differing political goals. Both organizations are lacking popularity in recent years so they are struggling to find new ways to gain an audience. The GOP wants to find a way to get their ideas to a wide variety of people, whereas Fox is promoting more liberal views to increase the ratings of their programs. On one hand, the GOP’s reputation is hurt by the inaccuracy of Fox’s reporting. On the other hand, Fox is tied down by the conservative views of the GOP, thus restraining Fox from gaining a larger audience. Journalist Reed Richardson wrote this article for The National, a liberal newspaper, in 2013, so the events and issues that he is speaking of are still relevant to this day. Due to the differences of political views between the author and the subject matter, there is plenty of room for biased statements and opinions. Does Richardson provide enough evidence of the harmful effects of the Fox and GOP relationship? Richardson clearly and meticulously establishes the problems that both organizations face in the pursuit of their political goals with the use of statistics, reliable sources, and thorough evaluation of events; however Richardson constantly provides the reader with a biased argument when discussing the current state of Fox.

America holds the illusion of ‘land of the free and home of the brave.’ This by any means, is not true if we continue to classify big media corporations as free press. Big corporations like Fox news, CNN, Union Tribune, etc. are also referred to as mainstream media and are completely under the control of the elite 1%. Time and again mainstream media has proved as unrepresentative, only serving the ones who pay them. In a nation where democracy is valued, people rely heavily on news sources to gather information, therefore, they need sources who can provide uncensored information that enables them to make knowledgeable decisions about their government.

In a particularly harsh and surprising article on the typically conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page, the writer voices his anger with Trump’s dubitable claims that British Intelligence wiretapped President Trump on behalf of the Obama administration. He concludes his article with the statement, “Two months into his Presidency, Gallup has Mr. Trump’s approval rating at 39 percent. No doubt Mr. Trump considers that fake news, but if he doesn’t show more respect for the truth, most Americans may conclude he’s a fake President.” While this is an especially severe statement, according to the aforementioned Fox News poll, the majority of people “think it’s better for the country if the news media ‘cover the president aggressively.’” The result of this poll is compatible with the public’s positive response to the Supreme Court’s ruling in New York Times v. United States. With the new administration, freedom of the press will remain at the forefront as questions continue to arise about what type of press is best for the

The media has been adversely affected by the explosion of information sources. It has become a tedious and cumbersome endeavor to accurately locate information sources that can stand to even the slightest bit of scrutinizing. For those who attempt to report the truth, they continue to find it

Nowadays journalists have the responsibility to report facts as accurately, objectively, and disinterestedly as is humanly possible. ‘’The, honest, self-disciplined, well-trained reporter seeks to be a propagandist for nothing but the truth’’ (Casey, 1944b).