Donald Trump attacked CNN as fake media, and is now
considering ousting the press from its quarters in the White House. He can pick
these fights; but when a Fox reporter came to CNN’s defense as legitimate news,
that signaled the institutional nature of Trump’s assault on the media.
Will Trump and the Republican Congress consider broader restraints
on free press?
If so, they might revisit Near v. Minnesota, a case that
broadened protections of free press but only by a 5-4 vote in 1931.
Jay Near published The Saturday Press. The paper had an
anti-Semitic streak. It also published exposes against local politicians. The
paper angered politicians and citizens.
The paper was silenced by a state law, known as the
Minnesota Gag Law of 1925. It was also called the Public Nuisance Law.
The Near decision ruled that the state had no power to prohibit
publication of the paper. The gag law violated the First Amendment.
Here is a quote from a key passage:
"If we cut through mere details of procedure, the operation
and effect of the statute in substance is that public authorities may bring the
owner or publisher of a newspaper or periodical before a judge upon a charge of
conducting a business of publishing scandalous and defamatory matter — in
particular that the matter consists of charges against public officers of
official dereliction — and, unless the owner or publisher is able and disposed
to bring competent evidence to satisfy the judge that the charges are true and
are published with good motives and for justifiable ends, his newspaper or
periodical is suppressed and further publication is made punishable as a
contempt. This is of the essence of censorship.”
....
Here's hoping Trump doesn't go near this cornerstone of freedom.
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