In this movie, the CBS
News Studio was willing to stand up against Senator McCarthy. The senator was
making false accusations about people being communist without any evidence. The
government had sent a loyalty oath to CBS and forced them to sign it. This
meant the news had to keep quiet about the issue and could not broadcast it to
the general public. This was censorship. McCarthy was ‘‘imposing his personal or
moral values on others’’. He felt that anyone who disagrees with him or criticize
his methods is a communist. According to the First Amendment, Congress cannot
make any laws to ‘‘abridge the freedom of the press’’. This directly implies
how censorship is unconstitutional. The CBS News Studio has every right to
speak against the wrongdoing of McCarthy without any restrictions from the
government. The government has been trying to restrict journalists for a long
time, the case of McCarthy occurred during the 1950s but if we trace back to 1735,
we also see it occurring with John Peter Zenger. He was the publisher of a
newspaper who published wrongdoing in the government and was thrown into jail. During
the Obama Administrators more whistleblowers were prosecuted than any other administration.
The government has always been in the business of trying to conceal certain
information from the general public.
But how can the government truly be a
democracy if the people have no say in what the government is doing? This tells
us that most times the government is more interested in doing what is best for
themselves and not the citizens. They are trying to put up a certain reputation
for themselves and most times they have to hide information from the public. John
McCarthy was trying to make himself seem better and above the citizens and
whoever did not follow through with his beliefs was a target. Therefore, the
government telling the CBS Studio to keep silent about what McCarthy was doing,
was clearly unfair. The public rely on the press to watch after what the state
or federal government is doing. They are the eyes and ears of the public and
this system is supposed to place checks and balances in the government.
In 1971, the Supreme
Court defended the rights of the press when they made it clear that ‘‘The New
York Times and Washington Post newspapers could publish contents of the
Pentagon Papers without risk of government censorship’’. This shows how the
press has every right to make share information with the public about the
government without fear of being jailed or attacked. The press is protected by the
First Amendment constitutional rights. Therefore, when Ed chooses to report the
bad that McCarthy is doing, he is responsibly exercising his constitutional
rights. We see that Palee, is against this idea because he is afraid that some
reporters may lose their jobs. Palee is not interested in making controversial
news but would rather just report the news. This tells us that when the
government puts fear into the press, it can stop them from exercising their
rights. If people stop exercising their rights then it means the government can
take advantage of the people at any given moment. Ed’s decision to stand up and
expose McCarthy’s comments on the live news station was a great example of the
press exercising their rights. The newspapers acknowledged the news crew for
their enlightened citizenship and display of courage to share news about
senator McCarthy playing political games and spreading deception. This led the
senate to investigate McCarthy.
Therefore, in order for a
society to run as a democracy it is imperative that you have a functional
press. They must be able to communicate information efficiently and effectively
to the public. They should be able to discern when the government is lying and
placing fear into the public. CBS Studios quickly detected the games McCarthy
was playing and was not hesitant to make the information go viral. Although a
few were uncomfortable, majority of the reporters were willing to report the
truth. Without the public knowing the truth, the government would be more so of
a dictatorship and less of a democracy. The people need the press to act as the
ears and eyes and to do the checking function. The checking function was a
theory developed by Vincent Blasi in relation to the First Amendment. He
emphasizes that the free press ‘‘check the abuse of power by public officials’’.
This is exactly what the CBS news station was doing with McCarthy. They needed
to put him in check or else he would take advantage of the citizens. We need
the press to boldly tell the truth so that the citizens can act accordingly.
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