How Free Can the Press Be?

2. Editorial Judgment

2. Editorial Judgment The First Amendment provides that “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.” What distinguishes press expression from free speech,which is separately mentioned? Some scholars have argued that there is no difference. The press’s freedom was mentioned simply to make certain that newspapers, pamphlets, and other publications were not left out. This is a possible explanation.Yet redundancy is not a common feature of the Constitution.And considering the notes and writings surrounding the drafting and ratification of the Bill of Rights, there seems little doubt that the drafters of the First Amendment had something different and special in mind when they used the words “freedom of the press.” The press’s freedom was often described as a means of enabling publishers of news and opinion to serve a function that secures and perpetuates individual liberty of belief and a social order in which government is controlled by the governed. To achieve such ends the people would need access to useful and objective information about political, economic, and social matters, emanating from sources other than government or its agencies or instruments . This, in turn, requires that publishers and editors and writers be free to make their own, fiercely independent choices about what to publish. Free editorial judgment,in other words,is a central feature of the press’s freedom under the First Amendment. Just what does editorial judgment mean? To whom must an independent editor or publisher be responsible when making publication judgments? What assumptions about private ownership, competition, and selflessness underlie an editor’s freedom? What part does truth play in the editor’s choices? The two stories in this chapter force us to confront these and other questions that go to the heart of the press’s editorial freedom. ...