First Amendment

The state Supreme Court ruled that the public has a right to records in an earlier case in which Gray Television’s argued successfully that its CBS affiliate WCAX Burlington should not be forced to turn over to police footage of a shooting in January 2018. “This unanimous decision is an important victory not only for the Vermont media, but all Vermonters, who depend on journalists to be independent and not take sides in any kind of story,” said Lisa Loomis, president of the Vermont Press Association.

Rich people have free speech rights. Do the corporations they run? That question is destroying democracy.

The U.S. Supreme Court may soon have the opportunity to shake up the consumption of news. At stake could very well be the online dissemination of broadcast news clips as well as a deeper understanding of how politics and news intersect. That’s because Wednesday, the media monitoring service TVEyes indicated in an application to the high court that it would indeed be petitioning for review of a recent appellate loss to Fox News.

A federal judge on Tuesday lifted a controversial order requiring The Los Angeles Times to delete information in an article published over the weekend. U.S. District Judge John Walter walked back his original decision after the Times protested with the support of newsrooms across the country, citing First Amendment concerns.

A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that the State of California’s SAG-AFTRA-backed law making it illegal for the entertainment news site IMDbPro to publish actors’ ages is unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds.

The creation of the First Amendment by our nation’s founders demonstrated a profound commitment to human dignity, reason and the search for truth. First Amendment confusion reigns today in America. Today, too many Americans take a self-centered approach, claiming their own individual rights, but not acknowledging that the First Amendment protects the free speech of the other guy, too.

RTDNA on Thursday demanded that the press office for the Georgia State Senate rescind its threat to revoke press credentials for a WGCL Atlanta reporter who had the audacity to ask questions of a state senator in the public hallway of a public building, the Georgia State Capitol.

Journalists are not immune to misunderstandings of the First Amendment, despite their self-evident interests in the functionality and well-being of a free press (and, indeed, their long and important efforts to protect speech and press freedoms). Jonathan Peters asked a dozen media law professors and attorneys what they consider common misunderstandings that journalists have about the First Amendment and media law. Eleven shared their thoughts.

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) on New Year’s Day called for a revival of “shared facts” in politics and the media. Sasse released a video saying that the country’s system of government “will not work” without a shared understanding of the value of the First Amendment.

Under questioning by New Jersey Democrat Frank Pallone at a House hearing, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai would not be drawn into criticizing the president for suggesting that the FCC ought to revoke the licenses of media companies for news stories Trump felt were untrue. However, Pai did say that he would not use the power of the FCC for retribution against any media company because of its reporting.

A group of 21 free speech activists, including three former FCC commissioners, called on the FCC chairman to publicly repudiate President’s Trump tweeted suggestion that the FCC revoke broadcast licences for airing “fake news” about him. “Such threats are what you would expect to hear in a dictatorship, not a democracy, and they must be condemned in the strongest possible terms,” they say in an open letter.

An Indiana lawmaker has drafted a bill that would require professional journalists to be licensed by state police. Rep. Jim Lucas had the measure drawn up earlier this year and said he may file it to drive home a point about his signature issue — gun rights. “If you’re OK licensing my Second Amendment right, what’s wrong with licensing your First Amendment right?” he said.

House Speaker Paul Ryan told journalists Thursday, “I’m a constitutional conservative, I’m for the First Amendment.”

It took a long time for the press to gain freedom and respect in America. Now both are in peril.

During the past several days the feud between President Trump and the NFL regarding many of its players taking a knee during the national anthem has deepened an already divisive debate about the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech and expression. What’s not as well known is that there has been a steady increase in efforts in many states to squelch public protests, an effort quite possibly borne out of the protests and rioting that followed the shootings of African-Americans by white police officers and others, which became more frequent three years ago.

The news group is backing WPTA Fort Wayne, Ind., in its effort to reverse a court ruling barring it from airing audio of the sentencing hearing of a doctor who pleaded guilty to sexual battery. The Quincy Media station legally obtained the recording through an open records request.

Donald Trump Jr.’s released incriminating emails after the New York Times alerted him it already had the emails and sought comment before posting them. Trump’s pre-emptive move may have given him the appearance of having nothing to hide in this instance, but he can no longer count on a heads-up from the press the next time it has a potentially damaging story.

About as many Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents think the news media has a positive (44%) as negative (46%) impact on the way things are going in the country, according to new research from Pew Research. Republicans, by about eight-to-one (85% to 10%), say the news media has a negative effect.

President Trump’s contempt for the news media was again glaringly on display when he chose not to hold a news conference at the conclusion of the G-20 summit in Hamburg. But the impact of his decision goes far beyond simply demonstrating a lack of concern for informing the American people.

After eight months of scrutiny by the Justice Department’s anti-trust regulators, the fate of the merger is still unclear. Among the reasons: Trump’s nominee to run the DOJ’s anti-trust division is still awaiting Senate confirmation and concerns that White House may weigh in given Trump’s antipathy toward CNN, one of Time Warner’s prized possessions.

In the past, presidents have often used foreign visits to preach the value of a free press. Not this president. 

As he prepared to meet with world leaders at the G20 summit today, President Trump waved off critics and the “Fake News Media” in his morning Tweets. “Fake News Media will never cover me accurately but who cares!,” says one.

National security officials across the federal government say they are seeing new restrictions on who can access sensitive information, fueling fears in the intelligence and security community that the Trump administration has stepped up a stealthy operation to smoke out leakers.

Univision Communications Inc. said it will fight a new defamation lawsuit over a Deadspin story the company acquired last year when it purchased Gawker Media’s blogs in a bankruptcy auction. The plaintiff in the suit, Las Vegas oddsmaker RJ Bell, is being represented by Charles Harder, the same lawyer that successfully sued Gawker on behalf of Hulk Hogan and forced it into bankruptcy. Subscription required to read story.

The Pew Research Center poll found that 89 percent of Democrats judged media criticism worth it because it keeps political leaders from doing things they shouldn’t, while only 42 percent of Republicans felt that way. While supporters of a party out of power are generally more interested in seeing reporters dig for news than those in power, the gap hasn’t been nearly this wide since Pew began looking at the question in 1985.

As we enter an age in which the internet is fully integrated into our daily lives, the main channel by which we access information, a reconsideration of the values of the First Amendment is required.

Dan Shelley, the incoming executive director of the RTDNA, says the new Voice of the First Amendment Task Force will look to give better air cover to hardworking journalists under unprecedented attack for doing their jobs.

A news task force will support journalists and educate the public on the importance of press freedoms. “If the public comes to believe the news media are the ‘enemy of the people,’ one of our country’s most fundamental rights could be lost,” says task force co-chair Sheryl Worsley. “Freedom of the press helps ensure a check on government and helps America stay free.”

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Thursday sidestepped questions from reporters about the Commission’s position on so-called “fake news.” Calling it a “political debate,” Pai said, “I will not wade into that. I will be focused on the core values of the First Amendment and protecting them.”

Trump’s attacks on the mainstream news media have not only energized them, but have prompted them to work together to plot a common strategy to preserve and expand their First Amendment rights and protections. National and local broadcasters should support this effort, providing money and speaking out.