Final Blog
The term transhistoricity is the quality of an entity or concept that has always existed and is not merely confined to one particular stage of human history. The United States government and its relationship with the press has been transhistorical in that their has always been reoccurring conflict, especially in times of war or tension. For example, one of the first instances where we see conflict between the government in press was during the Civil War. As seen in my earlier blog posts, the Lincoln administration had a number of journalists punished and press restricted in order to protect the governments personal agendas. We see this behavior that took place in the mid 1800s carried throughout history and it even takes place today.
In recent years the United States government has taken legal action against journalists, especially those journalists who are receiving their information from whistleblowers.The Espionage Act of 1917 was created to prevent the disclosure of military secrets to foreign entities. From 2009 to 2016, the Obama Administration used the Espionage Act to prosecute eight whistleblowers. Two of these whistleblowers were Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden. In recent years the Trump administration has been eager to go after journalists who release ‘bad’ press, often referred to “fake news”. One of the recent debates in Washington was over the disclosures reported by the New York Times about Russian involvement in the presidential election of 2016. President Trump stated in a tweet “The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by ‘intelligence’ like candy. Very un-American!”. Recently, Julian Assange, who is the founder of WikiLeaks and an Australian journalist, has been charged with 17 counts of espionage after publishing classified documents that include the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Reporters who have published the classified information given to them by a whistleblower have been compelled by a court to reveal their sources. In the Supreme Court case, Branzburg v. Hayes, the decision ruled that the First Amendment does not free a reporter from responding to a grand jury. Therefore, the First Amendment does not grant someone to conceal facts from a judge, such as who released the confidential information to them, or conceal the criminal conduct of one's source.
As time goes on so does the need for a set ruling in terms of how these cases should be handled. The espionage act is very vague and there needs to be rules that are straight forward in order to protect our First Amendment rights. It appears courts have been referring to the New York Times vs. United States case when it comes to new cases involving the publishing of confidential information. I believe that it is wrong for the government to keep referring to how this case was handled and that each case should be looked at differently in terms of what information was leaked. It is important for not only journalists but everyone to realize that if casting light on the secrets of the United States government is an act of espionage, then our press freedom under the First Amendment is at risk.
Good Night, and Good Luck
The film, "Good Night, and Good Luck", took place during the McCarthy Era where Senator Joseph McCarthy would accuse Americans of being part of the Communist party. In the film, CBS reporter
Edward R. Murray would expose Senator McCarthys wrong doings to the public. Although, the news team received backlash and threats they still continued to reveal that the senator was accusing innocent people of being communists without any accurate evidence. At the time reporters were scared to publish information that may have opposed the government, this is known as the Chilling Effect.
The Chilling Effect is the discouragement of the legitimate exercise of natural and legal rights by the threat of legal sanction. During the time of McCarthyism, journalists feared practicing their First Amendments writes due to the fact that they could be prosecuted against. Another instance was during the Civil War, when journalists feared being punished by the Lincoln administration for opposing the war. Today, whistleblowers such as Julian Assange are being used as an example to show the public what could happen to them if they did the same. In my opinion, these whistleblowers from Edward R. Murrow to Julian Assange are heros because they didn't let the chilling effect stop them in exercising their constitutional rights and set forth an example for other journalists to do the same.
As (the real) Edward R. Murrow once stated, "A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves."
It is vital that our press acts as a check and balance to our government in order to assure a functioning democracy.
Sources:
Film"Good Night, and Good Luck"
https://www.cato.org/blog/war-press-freedoms-name-national-securityhttps://www.ted.com/talks/trevor_timm_how_free_is_our_freedom_of_the_press
The film, "Good Night, and Good Luck", took place during the McCarthy Era where Senator Joseph McCarthy would accuse Americans of being part of the Communist party. In the film, CBS reporter
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