Tag: First Amendment

Newspapers are vanishing, leaving democracy at risk

Newspapers are dying. Young people aren’t reading them. Predatory hedge funds are buying them up, laying off reporters, milking them for profits and cutting home delivery. The result is that democracy is losing its eyes and ears and maybe its conscience.  That was a theme of Rick Goldsmith’s new documentary on the predatory consequences of

Long-stalled defamation cases against Gateway Pundit could move ahead

Two major defamation cases against Jim Hoft, the St. Louisan who publishes The Gateway Pundit, an influential far-right website, appear  poised to gain momentum in the weeks ahead after months of delays.  The cases, in Denver and St. Louis, are taking place against a backdrop of huge victories recently by the plaintiffs in two other

Bill of Rights – Well-heeled win today’s First Amendment disputes

Today’s conservative Roberts Court is a bastion of First Amendment freedom as was the liberal Warren Court half a century ago. But the winners are different. Establishment insiders win today whereas outsiders won most often during the Warren years. On its 200th birthday in 1991, the First Amendment had developed into a powerful shield against