When our speakers came to tell us about China, they made a comment about how our country, like China, does not have freedom of speech. Of course, in our constitution, freedom of speech is a right. Freedom of speech is allowing every citizen to speak or print the truth or their opinion, as long as their information is not untrue slander. News agencies make use of that right to inform the public of current events going on in the United States and the rest of the world. However, some people believe that the intermixing of large corporations and politicians has tainted what would otherwise be “un-biased news.” The main purpose of news services, which are run by corporations, is to provide news and information to the public. On the other hand, the main goal of the corporations is to make money, and money cannot be made if political sponsors and supporters do not approve of the program they are sponsoring. For example, the war in Iraq is almost never questioned by news anchors, but instead justified. This is because it is much easier to keep the majority of people happy by mitigating controversial issues than flat-out condemning them. Shows like The Colbert Report and The Daily Show with John Stewart tell the not “politically popular” opinion of the public and are being called “comedy news” shows. This label is accurate in that it describes the way in which the news is presented, but it is also meant to give the impression that news coming from shows like The Colbert Report is not as accurate as from news stations like NBC and CNN. In truth, every news agency is biased in some way and does not tell the entire
story. The only way to make sure media is “free” is to take the time to hear news from different points of view and opinion, so a story can be considered from all perspectives. Either that, or the average citizen needs to take charge and witness important current events first hand, then provide all possible sides of an issue to the public. Although our speakers were incorrect in saying that we do not have freedom of speech, they were correct in the essence that the public is not told all there is to hear.
Sources:
-Take Back the Media
http://www.takebackthemedia.com
-American Civil Liberties Union
http://www.aclu.org/freespeech/index.html
-Introduction to the Free Speech Clause
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/zenger/freespeech.htm
Random Economics (Take two)
16 years ago
1 comment:
The reader must assume that this sentence is missing the word "not" between "is" and "untrue":
"Freedom of speech is allowing every citizen to speak or print the truth or their opinion, as long as their information is untrue slander."
However, the points made here are very accurate and pointed. It is a long-held "truism" that no statement is free from some sort of bias. While many will declaim the press as biased, either left or right, it is impossible to remove all bias from reporting. In truth were it possible to remove all bias, perhaps even there would be no interest in it. Most stories have more than one side and more information than can be presented to the intended audience. Choices over what to tell or show and what not make the news what it is. When the news gives its story, it is showing a facet of the full reality. This is very evident in reporting on war. The right will often say that the press is too leftist and doesn't tell the good stories of how the war in Iraq is going. They feel that the shots of caskets and stories of wounded vets are not balanced with the good work donse. The left could easily also come back and say that the press is biased to the right because it doesn't report on the innocent deaths of Iraqi civilians as much as it reports on US casualties. Essentially any story told is told from the point of view at least of the teller, including all of that teller's personal history. If a person was injured as a child in a car accident, they might have a different point of view about driving than perhaps someone who grew up the child of a race car driver. etc.
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