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Title details for Saving the News by Martha Minow - Available

Saving the News

Why the Constitution Calls for Government Action to Preserve Freedom of Speech

by Martha Minow
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A detailed argument of how our government has interfered in the direction of America's media landscape that traces major transformations in media since the printing press and charts a path for reform. In Saving the News, Martha Minow takes stock of the new media landscape. She focuses on the extent to which our constitutional system is to blame for the current parlous state of affairs and on our government's responsibilities for alleviating the problem. As Minow shows, the First Amendment of the US Constitution assumes the existence and durability of a private industry. Although the First Amendment does not govern the conduct of entirely private enterprises, nothing in the Constitution forecloses government action to regulate concentrated economic power, to require disclosure of who is financing communications, or to support news initiatives where there are market failures. Moreover, the federal government has contributed financial resources, laws, and regulations to develop and shape media in the United States. Thus, Minow argues that the transformation of media from printing presses to the internet was shaped by deliberate government policies that influenced the direction of private enterprise. In short, the government has crafted the direction and contours of America's media ecosystem. Building upon this basic argument, Minow outlines an array of reforms, including a new fairness doctrine, regulating digital platforms as public utilities, using antitrust authority to regulate the media, policing fraud, and more robust funding of public media. As she stresses, such reforms are not merely plausible ideas; they are the kinds of initiatives needed if the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press continues to hold meaning in the twenty-first century.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Inalienable Rights

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 15, 2021

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780190948436

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780190948436
      • File size: 768 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      May 15, 2021
      The federal government has a moral and constitutional right to regulate digital platforms. In the latest installment of the publisher's Inalienable Rights series, longtime Harvard Law School professor Minow offers a cogent analysis of the contemporary news ecosystem along with suggestions for much-needed reforms. Newton Minow, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and the author's father, notes in his preface that "two words--public interest--are disappearing from communications policy." With the dominance of digital sources, he adds, speech has become so democratized "that no one can be heard, bad actors flood social media, and democratic deliberation is damaged." The author identifies major problems in news access, such as the declining roles of professional journalists and news outlets; the rise of "foreign actors, bots, and manipulative interests" on digital platforms; and the turning over of editorial activity to algorithms. Without reforms, she writes, "access to information, checks on falsehoods, government accountability, and journalism exposing corruption and other abuses of power are all in severe jeopardy." The Constitution does not preclude governmental intervention, she asserts; "the First Amendment constrains Congress from abridging the freedom of the press and the freedom of speech, but it does not bar actions to strengthen them." At present, antitrust law, tax law, government subsidies, intellectual property law, and libel and defamation laws all coexist with the First Amendment. Minow examines a series of possible reforms, including requiring payment for news circulated on social media, to help support journalists and editors; curtailing immunity of platforms such as Google and Facebook to liability suits; regulating large digital platforms as public utilities; enforcing terms of service agreements to guard against fraud and deception; regulating and enforcing fraud protections; and supporting nonprofit consumer-protection efforts and nonprofit news sources. Acknowledging that "no one initiative would be sufficient," Minow underscores the urgency of restoring public interest to communications policy. Thoughtful proposals for protecting the integrity of news.

      COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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