Should news sources have government approval before going to print?

[CptStern]

In light of this interesting poll, I thought maybe we should have a similiar poll

U.S. students say press freedoms go too far


"One in three U.S. high school students say the press ought to be more restricted, and even more say the government should approve newspaper stories before readers see them, according to a survey being released today."

"The survey of 112,003 students finds that 36% believe newspapers should get "government approval" of stories before publishing; 51% say they should be able to publish freely; 13% have no opinion.

Asked whether the press enjoys "too much freedom," not enough or about the right amount, 32% say "too much," and 37% say it has the right amount. Ten percent say it has too little."


also answer this (but dont forget to vote in above poll):

Does the press enjoy "too much freedom" ?

1. too much freedom
2. the right amount
3. not enough freedom
4. no opinion





my answers: not enough freedom

 

[Aratos]

Freedom of the press stops the government from controlling the masses. The press is the last line of defense against Fascism. Therefore, the press has the right amount of freedom. QED.

 

[Tr0n]

Freedom of the press stops the government from controlling the masses. The press is the last line of defense against Fascism. Therefore, the press has the right amount of freedom. QED.

Problem is they already control the masses with the media now'n days.

I quite frankley don't really care...I bearly watch tv anymore.I usually get my news from the BBC or yahoo news.

 

[burner69]

Government and media HAVE to stay seperate. And while I agree they should not be able to publish anything, they should start thinking about the consequences of dumbing down the masses by having headlines about Britney getting married, such-and-such a person doing drugs etc, when there's some serious issues people have little knowledge about.

Media's job: To inform about what's going on in the world, basing the amount of colum inches on what genuinely matters, and save the entertainment articles/stories for a little further down the line.

 

[Steve]

I'm ashamed of our students....*covers face*...

 

[CptStern]

ugh 3 of you voted for self-censorship which is what they do now ..I think that's even worse than being censored by the government ..at least the government has an agenda when they censor news ..self-censorship is usually there because there's more than just the influence of the government ..rather they do it out of fiscal responsibilites ..such as if you're paper has huge support from gun lobbyists in the form of $, you can be pretty much assured anything published in your paper that goes contrary to their interests can hurt you in a the wallet ...it's pretty much why I believe the majority of mainstream news sources have morphed into "info-tainment" outlets

 

[Mechagodzilla]

I said they should self-censor, but I meant in a good way.

Specifically, they should remove the sensationalism and alarmism, ensure that scientific stories are accurate, remove anything that has to do with any pointless celebrity unless it's a one-sentence footnote, not give one story a million times more signifigance than another just because it's a ratings grab. Stuff like that.

Like how another crime identical to the Scott Peterson affair was utterly ignored by the mainstream media, with the only big difference between the two being that one victim was rich and white, and another was a poor minority.
Or how Michael Jackson's ugly mug is plastered across the world's pages and screens despite his having no relevance to anything.
And how things like Global Warming get constant airtime, despite being weak theories based on insufficient evidence.

And paparazzi tabloids still exist? Why?

There really should be a filter in place, or at least higher standards, but not from the gov.

 

[Bodacious]

The only limits the media should have is publishing somethign that could cost lives, like troop positions, stuff like that.

 

[Wraith]

high schoolers are friggin morons, who cares what they think? they are buying into the whole fear bullcrap that bush is promoting, "omg if you guys print those stories the terrorists will get their hands on them and use it against us!!!"

bullcrap.

but i do agree on the not giving away troop positions and stuff like that, besides that would make for boring-ass news anyhow.

 

[Steve]

high schoolers are friggin morons, who cares what they think? they are buying into the whole fear bullcrap that bush is promoting, "omg if you guys print those stories the terrorists will get their hands on them and use it against us!!!"

bullcrap.

Yeah! I mean, the terrorists can't read English! God!

 

[Absinthe]

I voted for the kind of self-censorship that Mecha was talking about. They should have the right to freedom of speech without being censored by the government, but they should be obligated to maintain factual accuracy and integrity.

 

[CptStern]

but i do agree on the not giving away troop positions and stuff like that, besides that would make for boring-ass news anyhow.

not to the bad guys it wouldnt

terrorist #1 watching cnn: "shhhh, here's where they stupidly tell us where they're going to be"

terrorist #2 "let me get my pen"

 

[Tr0n]

I say they ban TV all together!

Whose with me!?!?! o/

 

[Missingno.]

well, the first amendment says freedom of press, but i dont think other countries have this freedom. we should take advantage of it.

 

[burner69]

well, the first amendment says freedom of press, but i dont think other countries have this freedom. we should take advantage of it.

Gotta be careful with that though - if you can put out ANYTHING it's easy for minorities to be targetted, people to get stereotyped etc. The daft ratio of articles about immigrants committing crimes, compared to how many immigrants actually commit crimes in the UK is a farce of the highest order.

 

[satch919]

No, no, no, NO! Thats friggen stupid! Knowing what kind of education kids get these days, high-schoolers have no idea whats going on. How would the girls like it if the government made the Tiger Beat or Teeny Bopper magazines cover up the bare chested young guys featured in the magazine. How would the guys like it if magazines like Stuff, Maxim, Playboy, etc. were forced to put black bars over certain parts of the female anatomy? Come on. Lets not be stupid here.

No government should have complete control over whats published. If they did, they would silence every publication that spoke out against them. They'd also skew certain publications to promote their agendas and policies. Thats not a democracy.

Think back to when you were in high school. Do you think you were capable of making such a profound decision? I know I wouldn't have. Very few, if any, know Constitutional law.

Whoever decided to make this poll needs to be fired from their current position. If they wanted to poll the youth of America, try the Community and University level colleges.

:hmph:

 

[RZAL]

When I first saw this poll I figured it was right on the money, most kids just don’t care about this kind of stuff. I then figured I had better take a closer look at it before I made an opinion, sure enough I wasn’t too surprised at the findings.

The question asked was: Overall do you think the press in America has too much freedom to do what it wants, too little freedom to do what it wants, or is the amount of freedom the press has about right?

Too much freedom: 32% students, 38% faculty, 40% principals, 42% adults
About the right amount of freedom: 37% students, 49% faculty, 56% principals, 44% adults
Too little freedom: 10% students, 8% faculty, 3% principals, 12% adults
Don’t know: 21% students, 6% faculty, 1% principals, 3% adults

Should be allowed to express unpopular opinions: 83% students, 97% faculty, 99% principals, 95% adults
Should be allowed to burn/deface American flag (%disagree): 74% students, 70% faculty, 75% principals, 74% adults
Newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval: 51% students, 80% faculty, 80% principals, 70% adults

http://firstamendment.jideas.org/downloads/future_final.pdf

http://www.knightfdn.org/default.asp?story=news_at_knight/releases/2005/2005_01_31_firstamend.html


“The survey suggests that First Amendment rights – freedom of speech, of the press, of religion, of assembly and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances – would be universally known if they were classroom staples.”

Its also worthy to note that the survey was conducted by The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Do I smell a special interest group? Gee, maybe the newspapers should have been reporting the findings of the teachers and principals instead of the students.



Statement of Purpose
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation was established in 1950 as a private foundation independent of the Knight brothers' newspaper enterprises. It is dedicated to furthering their ideals of service to community, to the highest standards of journalistic excellence and to the defense of a free press.
In both their publishing and philanthropic undertakings, the Knight brothers shared a broad vision and uncommon devotion to the common welfare. It is those ideals, as well as their philanthropic interests, to which the foundation remains faithful.
To heighten the impact of our grant making, Knight Foundation's trustees have elected to focus on two signature programs, Journalism Initiatives and Community Partners, each with its own eligibility requirements. A third program, the National Venture Fund, nurtures innovation, leadership and experimentation for community investments that might benefit Knight communities.





The Patriot “Freedom is not Free”

 

[Razor]

All British tabloids have an agenda and are biased, so i think all British tabloid newspaper need a severe shakeup and an independant governing body to ensure that newspaper print unbiased news stories and not just news stories supporting their own agenda. You saw this during the Iraq war with the Daily Mirror, The Sun, surprisingly, seemed to be far better in this respect, printing informative news articles explaining what is going on and keeping it as unbiased as possible.

 

[olistead]

Can I get a clarification on what you mean by 'self-censor'. It's probably real simple, but it seems to be that being able to publish what they want _is_ self-censoring, provided they want to. One and the same? What's the difference. (I want to point out that this is meant in a calm and smiley way, without any intended provocation, so please don't anybody degenerate this thread in the same way all the others get buggered )

 

[^Ben]

Self censoring is bascially self control.

 

[The Monkey]

well, the first amendment says freedom of press, but i dont think other countries have this freedom. we should take advantage of it.

What other contries? Contries in the ME or all around the world?

 

[WySiWyG]

It's all censored. As if it will ever change. For instance Reuters controls all the images allowed to go to press.

 

[Raziaar]

I think it should be self censored.

 

[el Chi]

I think self-censorship is the way to go, really. Government approval is a scary idea, but then corporation-owned press with an agenda is scary stuff as well.

 

[KoreBolteR]

the media has too much power, anything they say can turn the minds of everyone, and they make it sound real, even when its a lie. i dont see the government ever overpowering the media...

look at my sig

 

[Icarusintel]

i think they should actually work to publish facts, i wouldn't care so much if they got their facts straight, but they always seem to get at least one thing wrong in every news story, which kills the credibilty for me, but gov't censorship, as much as i think the media are lying, cheating bastards who should be shot, is not the way to go

 

[RZAL]

i think they should actually work to publish facts, i wouldn't care so much if they got their facts straight, but they always seem to get at least one thing wrong in every news story, which kills the credibilty for me, but gov't censorship, as much as i think the media are lying, cheating bastards who should be shot, is not the way to go

Did you take a look at the field study? To me the findings suggested that approx 50% of the people share your opinion. They want the media censored, but at the same time they want their personal freedom, with exception to flag burning. I wonder if there is any correlation between the two? I mean all you see on the news is anti-American semitism, he said she said crap and like you pointed out they always seem to get at least one thing wrong. Maybe I’m wrong but it seems to me the media does an excellent job of creating controversy and dividing the people with bias/un-creditable reporting.






The Patriot “Freedom is not Free”

 

[burner69]

You saw this during the Iraq war with the Daily Mirror, The Sun, surprisingly, seemed to be far better in this respect, printing informative news articles explaining what is going on and keeping it as unbiased as possible.

Not at all! Both were just as bad as eachother; the Mirror was anti-war, the Sun very pro-war. At least that way we had something of a balance, I would have died if all the papers were supporting the war, it'd just make it so easy to turn the whole of the tabloid reading country into pro-war no-brainers (not impying those of you who're pro-war are no-brainers, just saying that if they're just being tol dto be pro-war by their paper... well... you know what I mean).

And remember, as far as WMDs go, the Mirror with its "xxx days and still no WMD" was right all along. I have to admit I was glad when I saw the anti-war approach the Mirror took.

 

[CptStern]

I mean all you see on the news is anti-American semitism,

I dont see it as much in mainstream media and it's not anti-americanism ..it's always about a specific issue and in many cases the criticism is justified

Maybe I’m wrong but it seems to me the media does an excellent job of creating controversy and dividing the people with bias/un-creditable reporting.

I dont agree, I think the war in iraq is a perfect example of how the mainstream media is mobalised by the government to serve as a propaganda mouthpiece. Fox being the obvious example, but even reputable mainstream media giants played the "sell the war to the american people" game

NY Times apologizes for Iraq coverage

even some of the little guys apologized


some media outlets tailored their coverage to fit a specific agenda:

"Rupert Murdoch's Fox network is among the US media giants accused of
tailoring its war coverage to curry favour with Michael Powell, the
George Bush-appointed chairman of America's media regulator who is
facing mounting pressure to scrap media ownership rules."

interesting article --originally printed in the Guardian but I couldnt find a non-subscription version

 

[No Limit]

I vote not enough.

However, I need to point something out. That poll you posted isn't very reliable. In that same poll I believe it was around 50% of adults who said government should approve news stories. I am not positive on the 50% figure but it was more than 36%; let me see if I can find it.

In light of this interesting poll, I thought maybe we should have a similiar poll

U.S. students say press freedoms go too far


"One in three U.S. high school students say the press ought to be more restricted, and even more say the government should approve newspaper stories before readers see them, according to a survey being released today."

"The survey of 112,003 students finds that 36% believe newspapers should get "government approval" of stories before publishing; 51% say they should be able to publish freely; 13% have no opinion.

Asked whether the press enjoys "too much freedom," not enough or about the right amount, 32% say "too much," and 37% say it has the right amount. Ten percent say it has too little."


also answer this (but dont forget to vote in above poll):

Does the press enjoy "too much freedom" ?

1. too much freedom
2. the right amount
3. not enough freedom
4. no opinion





my answers: not enough freedom

 

[Razor]

All news sources should be controlled and policed by an independant panel of people, not by the government and definately not by themselves. Would you really trust the Sun newspaper not to print bullshit?

 

[RZAL]

I dont see it as much in mainstream media and it's not anti-americanism ..it's always about a specific issue and in many cases the criticism is justified

I should have clarified anti-American Semitism, poor choice of words. More along the lines of political parties (due to election year) and the fall out of 9/11, followed up with a number of internal and external events. You have to agree that America is deeply divided by a number of issues. Then again this statement was made in ref. to the surveys findings, “could there be any correlation between how and why people answered the way they did. It appears they want their personal freedoms, they want the media censured and they want people to respect the flag”. I haven’t studied each word of the survey, it’s just an interesting thought.

I feel the newspapers should have focused on the teachers, prin. and adults instead of the students.

“it's always about a specific issue and in many cases the criticism is justified” I agree the people need to question authority. Now correct me if I’m wrong, just about all of these specific issues have been divided straight down the middle of both political parties. You have the Dems on the left who see it this way and the Repubs on the right, who see it that way. Both parties have been at it for years and seldom do they ever find middle ground. Meanwhile you have capitalistic news reporters, who not only may be politically bias but also concerned with ratings. You know… Got to sex that story up, got to get the ratings, got to make that money. Peace doesn’t sell news, war, controversy and crime sells news.

I dont agree, I think the war in iraq is a perfect example of how the mainstream media is mobalised by the government to serve as a propaganda mouthpiece. Fox being the obvious example, but even reputable mainstream media giants played the "sell the war to the american people" game

I agree, the government will use every available means to promote their propaganda (both Dems and Repubs). It’s the nature of gov/people.

So maybe, just maybe this survey reflects that people in America has had enough of this BS, I know I have.




The Patriot “Freedom is not Free”

 

[RZAL]

I vote not enough.

However, I need to point something out. That poll you posted isn't very reliable. In that same poll I believe it was around 50% of adults who said government should approve news stories. I am not positive on the 50% figure but it was more than 36%; let me see if I can find it.

No Limit, Stern and I posted the same poll, his posting was from a news source. I pulled up the survey itself, the figs are the same just very misleading.

Not Sterns fault, just the way the news source reported it.




The Patriot "Freedom is not Free"

 

[Icarusintel]

The mainstream media was mobilized by the gov't? are you serious? every day of the war all i heard was how we were wrong to go into Iraq and how many innocents were dying, maybe it was just the news sources i looked at (CNN.com and The Washington Post mainly) but, like a speaker at my school said the other day, they criticized everything about the war except the soldiers, the only real taboo there was, the media points out so many problems but never any ways to fix them
besides, the news is all about pessimism, where are the stories about kids doing well in school, it's all sensationalism which really pisses me off, I'm an educated adult, give me straight facts and let me figure it out on my own, wish there was a news outlet that did that

 

[CptStern]

The mainstream media was mobilized by the gov't? are you serious? every day of the war all i heard was how we were wrong to go into Iraq and how many innocents were dying, maybe it was just the news sources i looked at (CNN.com and The Washington Post mainly) but, like a speaker at my school said the other day, they criticized everything about the war except the soldiers, the only real taboo there was, the media points out so many problems but never any ways to fix them
besides,

one of my previous posts in this threads proves the mainstream media presented a propagandist argument in defending the war in iraq ..they apologized for their unfair biased reporting ...if you think cnn and the washington post were critical of the war then you havent had all that much exposure to international news ...CNN looks like a brochure for military recruitment in comparison to the bbc or the cbc ...nowhere else do you see as many fluff pieces about how the military is doing good in iraq ..the very fact that the US only used approved embedded journalism should tip you off that the reporting from the frontlines has a decidely pro-war spin

 

[CptStern]

No Limit, Stern and I posted the same poll, his posting was from a news source. I pulled up the survey itself, the figs are the same just very misleading.

Not Sterns fault, just the way the news source reported it.




The Patriot "Freedom is not Free"

yes, thank you, I'd also like to add that the article itself focused on the results of the teen poll

 

[RZAL]

yes, thank you, I'd also like to add that the article itself focused on the results of the teen poll

No prob,. All of the articles I read focused on the students, I'm sure sooner or later one of these news orgs will take the time to read the actual field findings. Then again, its in the news orgs best interest to report on its best interest. The fact that adults scored similar to students doesn’t help them in anyway. Just upset teachers and so fourth. Its just propaganda to gain support for freedom of the press, they are pushing for more constitutional course in the classroom. I support the education but not at the expense of the student.








The Patriot “Freedom is not Free”

 

[RZAL]

The mainstream media was mobilized by the gov't? are you serious? every day of the war all i heard was how we were wrong to go into Iraq and how many innocents were dying, maybe it was just the news sources i looked at (CNN.com and The Washington Post mainly) but, like a speaker at my school said the other day, they criticized everything about the war except the soldiers, the only real taboo there was, the media points out so many problems but never any ways to fix them
besides, the news is all about pessimism, where are the stories about kids doing well in school, it's all sensationalism which really pisses me off, I'm an educated adult, give me straight facts and let me figure it out on my own, wish there was a news outlet that did that

It does seem the left has more control of the press than the right. As Stern pointed out "if you think cnn and the washington post were critical of the war then you havent had all that much exposure to international news ...CNN looks like a brochure for military recruitment in comparison to the bbc or the cbc ". International news blows them all away, its an uphill battle from here.






The Patriot "Freedom is not Free"

 

[CptStern]

No prob,. All of the articles I read focused on the students, I'm sure sooner or later one of these news orgs will take the time to read the actual field findings. Then again, its in the news orgs best interest to report on its best interest. The fact that adults scored similar to students doesn’t help them in anyway. Just upset teachers and so fourth. Its just propaganda to gain support for freedom of the press, they are pushing for more constitutional course in the classroom. I support the education but not at the expense of the student.








The Patriot “Freedom is not Free”

I wonder how that same poll would play out in different countries ...I mean you have a war going on so that's gotta have some influence over the results

 

[No Limit]

No Limit, Stern and I posted the same poll, his posting was from a news source. I pulled up the survey itself, the figs are the same just very misleading.

Not Sterns fault, just the way the news source reported it.




The Patriot "Freedom is not Free"

No, I agree. I just wanted to point out that it is misleading as the same poll had adults as wanting more control than the teens did so it actually shows teens in this country are smarter than older people. I am still looking for this, I read it yesterday on DU but I can't start a search there as I don't have a premium membership. If any of you find it let me know.