Blog Narrative
The First Amendment protects our rights to freedom of speech, religion, press, petition and assembly. We can find this document in the Bill of Rights and it mentions that petition and assembly should be peaceful.
The SPJ code of conducts states rules that an honorable, respectful journalist should abide by and many journalists voluntarily due on a daily basis.
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan is a US Supreme Court case that set the actual malice standard that states that if someone maliciously defamed a public figure it is illegal and supports the press in freedom of speech.
The 133-page report contends that the press is free for serving democracy; a press that shirks its democratic duties will lose its freedom. The report calls on the press to improve itself in the name of morality, democracy, and self-preservation.
The Kerner Commission Report findings were that the race riots of 1967 were due from black frustration at lack of economic opportunity. It contains a chapter that influences the press to seek point of views from blacks’ perspectives and states, "The press has too long basked in a white world looking out of it, if at all, with white men's eyes and white perspective.”
In the Zenger case, Andrew Hamilton defended his client’s freedom of press during the colonial era and defended Zenger’s right to critique on corrupt officials.
Nelson Poynter's Standards of Ownership is the basic will and wish for ownership of St. Petersburg Times and guide to owning it, which is a big responsibility.
The Pentagon Papers decision is an example of the Supreme Court favoring freedom of press and going against the executive branch to give the NY Times the right to print their controversial report on the supposed Pentagon Papers that stated conspiracies and motives on the Vietnam War.
“Elements of Style” is a standard of correct English for many journalists and strives to simply give the most concise version of English composition and literature.
The Freedom of Information Act allows for the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the United States Government and help uncover government secrets that the public is kept in the dark on.
CBS manual of standards and practices is a guide for censoring what should be said on the news. As years pass, censoring is lighter; for example, you could not say the word pregnant in the 1950’s.
. Edward R. Murrow's speech at the RTNDA convention stated the corruptness of TV's emphasis on entertainment and commercialism at the cost of public interest.
"Politics and the English Language" is a book by the famous George Orwell who wrote 1984 and states that misuse of language and government are similar because it “is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble”.
Manifesto on New Journalism by Ton Wolf had four main points: scene-by-scene construction, status details, dialogue, and third-person point of view.
The Magna Carta was one of the first documents of England in the 1500s that gave citizens basic rights like habeas corpus. It was written to lessen the king’s power and was a stepping-stone in the right direction for more power to the people even though it mostly addressed nobles rather than the common folk.
