The ways people communicate change over time. And our laws, including the First Amendment, adapt to those changes. But it isn’t clear that recent changes and trends are adapting to our needs for truthful and reliable information, and for outlets of dissent, reform, and renewal, within today’s electronic communications environment. When the Bill of Rights was … [Read more...] about Media laws failing challenge of online misinformation and hate
Opinion
Local media need to fact-check gas stories that are full of hot air
Perhaps you’ve seen the sticker on a gas pump. Or maybe you saw a photograph on social media. The sticker is a cartoon of President Joe Biden with the words “I did that!” It is positioned so he is pointing at the gas price. Biden is not responsible for rising consumer gas prices, but the theory is nonetheless being widely shared in conversation and on social media, … [Read more...] about Local media need to fact-check gas stories that are full of hot air
From Hazelwood’s backyard: An adviser’s plea to tell student journalists, “We trust you.”
In the backyard of the Hazelwood Supreme Court decision, I am organizing efforts for year seven of trying to get New Voices legislation passed in Missouri. The only thing that has passed in the last seven years are the states passing Missouri in adding this law that basically overrides Hazelwood and grants First Amendment rights to students and advisers. We are surrounded. … [Read more...] about From Hazelwood’s backyard: An adviser’s plea to tell student journalists, “We trust you.”
Is the Supreme Court’s most famous press freedom ruling at risk?
Ask any 10 journalists to name the most important First Amendment decision ever handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court, and at least nine of them will say New York Times Co. vs. Sullivan. If your media law class was long enough ago that you no longer remember the details, the case involved a local official in Alabama who sued the Times over a 1964 ad in the paper that … [Read more...] about Is the Supreme Court’s most famous press freedom ruling at risk?
It’s getting hard and harder to find a newspaper for sale
Late last month, my son and I were photographed outside of Columbia College Chicago for a story about my employer’s new policy limiting children on campus. The Chicago Tribune photographer captured him in a wrap on my back, his blue Vans untied and a floral mask covering his face. It was my baby’s first newspaper photo. I’m just old school enough that after I … [Read more...] about It’s getting hard and harder to find a newspaper for sale