War & Press Freedom: The Problem of Prerogative PowerWar and Press Freedom: The Problem of Prerogative Power is a groundbreaking and provocative study of one of the most perplexing civil liberties issues in American history: What authority does or should the government have to control press coverage and commentary in wartime? First Amendment scholar Jeffery A. Smith shows convincingly that no such extraordinary power exists under the Constitution, and that officials have had to rely on claiming the existence of an autocratic "higher law" of survival. Smith carefully surveys the development of statutory restrictions and military regulations for the news media from the ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791 through the Gulf War of 1991. He concludes that the armed forces can justify refusal to divulge a narrow range of defense secrets, but that imposing other restrictions is unwise, unnecessary, and unconstitutional. In any event, as electronic communication becomes almost impossible to constrain, soldiers and journalists must learn how to respect each other's obligations in a democratic system. |
Contents
War Autocracy and the Constitution | 3 |
The Purpose of the Press Clause | 27 |
The Federalists and the French Revolution | 75 |
Copyright | |
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Abraham Lincoln actions Adams administration Alexander Hamilton Amendment American April Army attack authority Bill of Rights bomb Byron Price censor civil liberties civilian Cold War Cong Congress Constitution correspondent coverage criticism December defense democratic dissent editor Eisenhower enemy Espionage executive February federal Federalist film forces Franklin Free Speech George Grenada Gulf Hamilton History House issue James Madison January John John Adams Journalism journalists June Justice Kennedy Law Review legislation Lincoln MacArthur March military national edition national security newspaper Newsweek Nixon November nuclear October Office of Censorship opinion Oxford University Press Pentagon Philadelphia political president presidential press clause press freedom prior restraint propaganda protect published reporters Republican Richard Richard Nixon Robert Roosevelt safety secrecy secret Secretary Sedition Act sess soldiers stories suppression Supreme Court Thomas Jefferson told troops Truman United Vietnam wartime Washington weapons William Woodrow Wilson World World War II wrote York