Thanks for running this column, which accompanies my latest episode and newsletter. Press freedoms are hard won. The media should use them to deliver the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth! Join me at: https://theystandcorrected.substack.com/
I stand with you, but it's vital (to our rights and freedom) to see that this issue is about much more than "press freedoms." The First Amendment secures "the freedom of speech, or of the press" of all Americans. That freedom belongs to us all, not merely to what we today call "the press."
In the 1780's and 1790's "the press" didn't refer to journalists. When the First Amendment was written and ratified, "the press" meant a printing press, i.e., something like the device that we would call a printer today. The press was merely a means of communication. People just submitted requests to print shops to have documents reproduced using a printing press.
The Constitution refers to "the freedom of speech, or of the press" to emphasize that it's one freedom, regardless of whether it's called "the freedom of speech" or called "the freedom of the press" (or "the liberty of the press"). Those were mere idiomatic expressions commonly used to refer to all forms of expression and communication, including not only verbal and written communications, but also symbols (including flags, liberty trees and liberty poles), physical gestures, other expressive conduct (including erecting liberty poles, hanging effigies, and burning flags, effigies and crosses), and mass assemblies and demonstrations (including parades and gathering around liberty poles and liberty trees).
The freedom at issue is the freedom of all Americans regarding all forms of expression and communication, not merely of mere "speech" or merely of "the press." SCOTUS in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan highlighted the vital reasons for such freedom.
For starters, "the right of freely examining public characters and measures, and of free communication among the people thereon" is "the only effectual guardian of every [American] right." Even more importantly and profoundly, however, the freedom of speech and press flows from the collective sovereignty of the people over all our public servants and the individual sovereignty of each person over his or her own mind and mouth.
A unanimous SCOTUS (quoting Madison) emphasized the crucial principle that "[t]he people, not the government, possess the absolute sovereignty," so in our "Republican Government," in general, "the censorial power is in the people over the Government, and not in the Government over the people." As SCOTUS further emphasized, "The structure of the government" in our Constitution deliberately "dispersed power in reflection of the people’s distrust of concentrated power, and of power itself at all levels."
I think what the current administration is doing, on all fronts, is beyond the pale, beyond what any administration has done. The executive has weaponized every department to act on its behalf, and only on its behalf.
Thanks for running this column, which accompanies my latest episode and newsletter. Press freedoms are hard won. The media should use them to deliver the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth! Join me at: https://theystandcorrected.substack.com/
I stand with you, but it's vital (to our rights and freedom) to see that this issue is about much more than "press freedoms." The First Amendment secures "the freedom of speech, or of the press" of all Americans. That freedom belongs to us all, not merely to what we today call "the press."
In the 1780's and 1790's "the press" didn't refer to journalists. When the First Amendment was written and ratified, "the press" meant a printing press, i.e., something like the device that we would call a printer today. The press was merely a means of communication. People just submitted requests to print shops to have documents reproduced using a printing press.
The Constitution refers to "the freedom of speech, or of the press" to emphasize that it's one freedom, regardless of whether it's called "the freedom of speech" or called "the freedom of the press" (or "the liberty of the press"). Those were mere idiomatic expressions commonly used to refer to all forms of expression and communication, including not only verbal and written communications, but also symbols (including flags, liberty trees and liberty poles), physical gestures, other expressive conduct (including erecting liberty poles, hanging effigies, and burning flags, effigies and crosses), and mass assemblies and demonstrations (including parades and gathering around liberty poles and liberty trees).
The freedom at issue is the freedom of all Americans regarding all forms of expression and communication, not merely of mere "speech" or merely of "the press." SCOTUS in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan highlighted the vital reasons for such freedom.
For starters, "the right of freely examining public characters and measures, and of free communication among the people thereon" is "the only effectual guardian of every [American] right." Even more importantly and profoundly, however, the freedom of speech and press flows from the collective sovereignty of the people over all our public servants and the individual sovereignty of each person over his or her own mind and mouth.
A unanimous SCOTUS (quoting Madison) emphasized the crucial principle that "[t]he people, not the government, possess the absolute sovereignty," so in our "Republican Government," in general, "the censorial power is in the people over the Government, and not in the Government over the people." As SCOTUS further emphasized, "The structure of the government" in our Constitution deliberately "dispersed power in reflection of the people’s distrust of concentrated power, and of power itself at all levels."
I think what the current administration is doing, on all fronts, is beyond the pale, beyond what any administration has done. The executive has weaponized every department to act on its behalf, and only on its behalf.
Correction: on behalf of ONE PERSON.
There is indeed an incredible amount of corruption.
This is more nonsense from the petulant child and his asinine administration..................