Printers and Press Freedom: The Ideology of Early American JournalismOxford University Press, 24.05.1990 - 248 Seiten In the United States, the press has sometimes been described as an unoffical fourth branch of government, a branch that serves as a check on the other three and provides the information necessary for a democracy to function. Freedom of the press--guaranteed but not defined by the First Amendment of the Constitution--can be fully understood only when examined in the context of the political and intellectual experiences of 18th-century America. Here, Jeffery A. Smith explores how Madison, Franklin, Jefferson, and their contemporaries came to see liberty of the press as a natural and vital part of a democratic republic. Drawing on sources ranging from political philosophers to court records and newspaper essayists, Printers and Press Freedom traces the development of a widespread conception of the press as necessarily exempt from all government restrictions, but still liable for the defamation of individuals. Smith carefully analyzes libertarian press theory and practice in the context of republican ideology and Enlightenment thought--paying particular attention to the cases of Benjamin Franklin and his relatives and associates in the printing business--and concludes that the generation that produced the First Amendment believed that government should not be trusted and that the press needed the broadest possible protection in order to serve as a check on the misuse of power. |
Im Buch
Ergebnisse 1-5 von 43
Seite vii
... Enlightenment thought , party politics , and the political tensions created by oligarchical pat- terns of government . In particular , our interpretations of journalistic rights ought to be examined in the light of recent ...
... Enlightenment thought , party politics , and the political tensions created by oligarchical pat- terns of government . In particular , our interpretations of journalistic rights ought to be examined in the light of recent ...
Seite xi
... Enlightenment Part Two . Political and Legal Questions IV . Sovereignty and Seditious Libel V. Demands , Defenses ... Enlightened Printer : Virtue and Vituperation VIII . The Prerevolutionary Printer : The Ideal of 108 Impartiality 124 ...
... Enlightenment Part Two . Political and Legal Questions IV . Sovereignty and Seditious Libel V. Demands , Defenses ... Enlightened Printer : Virtue and Vituperation VIII . The Prerevolutionary Printer : The Ideal of 108 Impartiality 124 ...
Seite 13
... Enlightenment writer and statesman conducted himself as a patriarch of American journalism and an advocate of liberty of the press . Moreover , it is an effort to explore — through other print- ers , philosophers , and politicians — the ...
... Enlightenment writer and statesman conducted himself as a patriarch of American journalism and an advocate of liberty of the press . Moreover , it is an effort to explore — through other print- ers , philosophers , and politicians — the ...
Seite 20
Du hast die Anzeigebeschränkung für dieses Buch erreicht.
Du hast die Anzeigebeschränkung für dieses Buch erreicht.
Seite 39
Du hast die Anzeigebeschränkung für dieses Buch erreicht.
Du hast die Anzeigebeschränkung für dieses Buch erreicht.
Inhalt
3 | |
15 | |
Part Two Political and Legal Questions | 55 |
The Case of Franklin and His Partners | 93 |
Conclusion | 162 |
A Note on Sources | 168 |
List of Abbreviations | 173 |
Notes | 177 |
Index | 225 |
Andere Ausgaben - Alle anzeigen
Printers and Press Freedom: The Ideology of Early American Journalism Jeffery Alan Smith Eingeschränkte Leseprobe - 1988 |
Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
Adams Amendment April Assembly authority Autobiography Bache Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin Bache Bill of Rights Boston Cato Cato's Letters century Colonial Constitution Courant Court Craftsman criticism David Hall debate defamation defended Early American editor eighteenth eighteenth-century England English Enlightenment essay February Federalist free press freedom of expression Gazette Hamilton History Howell's State Trials ibid Ideology impartiality issue James Franklin James Parker January John Journal journalists June Junius jury Levy libertarian press liberty London Madison Massachusetts ment Mercury New-York newspaper November NYPB October opinion pamphlet paper Parliament party Pennsylvania Philadelphia political Poor Richard Post-Boy press clause press freedom printers printing prosecutions published radical Whig religious Republican reputation restraint Revolution Samuel Sedition Act seditious libel September Speech Stamp Act Star Chamber suppress Thomas Jefferson Timothy tion trial truth University Press vols Wilkes writings wrote York Zenger
Beliebte Passagen
Seite 40 - If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union, or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it.
Seite 43 - I thank God, there are no free schools nor printing, and I hope we shall not have these hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels against the best government. God keep us from both!
Seite 45 - A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or, perhaps, both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
Seite 46 - The last right we shall mention, regards the freedom of the press. The importance of this consists, besides the advancement of truth, science, morality, and arts in general, in its diffusion of liberal sentiments on the administration of Government, its ready communication of thoughts between subjects, and its consequential promotion of union among them, whereby oppressive officers are shamed or intimidated, into more honourable and just modes of conducting affairs.
Seite 33 - Lords and Commons of England, consider what nation it is whereof ye are and whereof ye are the governors : a nation not slow and dull, but of a quick, ingenious, and piercing spirit, acute to invent, subtle and sinewy to discourse, not beneath the reach of any point the highest that human capacity can soar to.
Seite 91 - The constitutional guarantees require, we think, a federal rule that prohibits a public official from recovering damages for a defamatory falsehood relating to his official conduct unless he proves that the statement was made with "actual malice" — that is, with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.
Seite 110 - ... believe, has been of great advantage to me when I have had occasion- to inculcate my opinions, and persuade men into measures that I have been from time to time engaged in promoting; and as the chief ends of conversation are to inform or to be informed, to please or to persuade...
Seite 110 - I therefore filled all the little spaces that occurred between the remarkable days in the calendar with proverbial sentences, chiefly such as inculcated industry and frugality, as the means of procuring wealth, and thereby securing virtue ; it being more difficult for a man in want to act always honestly, as, to use here one of those proverbs, it is hard for an empty sack to stand upright.
Seite 4 - On every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.
Seite 70 - The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable.