Balen+Walker

__Should there be any restrictions on professional journalists, and are they not being restricted when they should be? __ __Importance of Topic: __ This topic is important because the press tells the everyday American what is going on in the world. It can be a problem though because if the press is restricted in what they can say, then the everyday American will not get information form the press whether it be important or not. I don't really follow the press so I hope to learn about what they do and learn more than I know about already. I also think it would be good to know what the press might hiding or what they are not allowed to show and how it affects us. __Political Cartoon pictures: __ Talimonov, Alexei. "Google Images." //Google Images//. Talimonov, Alexei, n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. .//
 * Effect of restrictions on the Press**
 * 1) How do they affect the lives of their readers with the information they provide and write about?
 * 2) Who are the modern day press? Who were the press from the past?
 * 3) What are some court cases that dealt with restricting or not restricting the press?

//__Photographs: __// //"Google Images."// Google Images//. Freedom House, Tues. May 2012. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. [|http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http:]//www.freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/styles/detail/public/Press%20Freedom%20Launch%20Image.jpg.

Pros and Cons of restricting the Press - puts less strain on the government with things that might cause distress among the people - prevent false information from being released to the public - the press might be more controlled in certian environments || - the press might not be able to release important information to the public - can not release vital information to the justice system - will not be able to release certian entertainment to the viewers - could be new restrictions on the internet, t.v., and more || __Court cases involving the press: __ ** Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting ** ** Decided June 28, 1977 **
 * Pros: || Cons: ||
 * - protect the people form things that might be innapropriate

Background: A man named Hugo Zacchini had been performing a family performance where they shot themselves over 200 ft out of a cannon. This trick is known as the human cannon ball. A reporter, without the permission of Zacchini, had decided to report on the performance and take footage of it as well. When it was released to the public and Zacchini found out about it he sued Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co. who had recorded the performance. Zacchini complained that the stunt was his own professional property and the broadcasting company was stealing. At first, the court ruled in favor of Zacchini by just one vote. However the decision was later reverse due to issues brought up from the first Amendment. The freedom of the press helped the broadcasting company win the case, but there some provisions made to the first amendment after the case was over. The court had originally thought that there could be issues with copyright, but they decided just reporting on performance and showing little footage would not cause any economic threat to Zacchini and his performance.

Legal Issue: Can a television station broadcast a performance without the performer’s permission.

Holding: The Ohio Supreme Court ruled in favor of Scripps-Howard.

Reasoning: The U.S. Constitution allows newscasters to report on public interests due to the First and Fourteenth Amendment. It is legal to to show the performance as long as all of the performance is not released and it does not cause any economic harm to the performer and their performance

//__ ZACCHINI v. SCRIPPS-HOWARD BROADCASTING CO. __//. The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago- Kent College of Law. 12 November 2012. <//__http://www.oyez.org/cases/1970-1979/1976/1976_76_577__//>.

__What I Think:__ <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Reflection: <span style="font-family: 'arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">While researching the topic of the freedom of the press I found many eye opening ideas and problems. I had always thought of the press as reporters that go about freely and share their findings with the public; however I found out that there is much more to the press than this. I had also never realized that it was a very controversial topic in America due to the misleading first amendment, which gives freedom to the press. It turns out that the press has had to deal with many problems like being sued for broadcasting things that were copyrighted, not being regulated by the government when they should be, and many more issues that should have never existed. All of this research really goes to show the problems of the press, but that doesn’t mean that they should oppressed and restricted all of the time. I do think that there are certain things that should not be revealed to the public by the press, but I do not think that they should be punished for showing it. In most of this research I found that the main problems came from government regulation of the press. It is obvious that in some situations the government has no control over the press, so the law and the justice system end up getting involved. <span style="font-family: 'arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">One day, I was with a friend and walking down a road to a store when we came across court that had just closed an important case. The case which none of us knew about was not important to us, but what we did see was troublesome. News vans with reporters crowded around the building waiting for their future interview victims to walk out. When they finally came out the reporters bombarded them with questions and some even had cameras capture the moment. Eventually the press was so overwhelming that the police had to get involved and control the situation. The reporters were force to pack up and leave the scene by the police. My friend and I had joked that the reporters get what they deserved for storming the court like they did. <span style="font-family: 'arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">This memory I had thought nothing of until I did this research. I realized I was very wrong about what I had thought about the press, that they were a nuisance to society and were insignificant. The press actually plays an important role in society relaying all the important events that go on in the world. This research showed me in that situation the press was not controlled properly and it was an easily preventable situation. I personally think that the press could be changed in some ways to make it a safer environment and more effective. I know that it is not the entire governments fault; however they could make the press a lot more efficient than the press today. <span style="font-family: 'arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">I am not the best at making solutions to problems, but we as Americans should see that the situation with the press is slowly deteriorating and that it needs to be fixed. We need to figure out ways to regulate the press to stop all of these law suits and police involvements with the press. If we don’t act quickly we might lose control of the forever and not be able to regain it. Imagine all the horrible event that go on in the world not being controlled like recorded crimes, videos of war, and graphic news articles. We don’t want our kids and future generations to be exposed to these types of atrocities.

__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">Works Cited: __ //__ ZACCHINI v. SCRIPPS-HOWARD BROADCASTING CO. __//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">. The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago- <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Kent College of Law. 12 November 2012. <//__http://www.oyez.org/cases/1970-1979/1976/1976_76_577__//>.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Research paper

The Press: the Good, the Bad, and the Future By: Balen Walker Mrs. Gregory AP Language and Composition 12 December 2012

The Press: the Good, the Bad, and the Future Television, books, Internet, and more, the press has been giving out information to the public from the time when reporters came into existence. Since the press could report, they have been feeding America with vital and fun information from within the country and from outside of the country. It is their job to go in depth into current events and gather what knowledge they can and what they are allowed to. From there they can release it to the public whether it is important to the public or not. It might not be every day, bit we might see reporters crowding around an election, a crime scene, or something that might be of importance. We always think, those reporters are nerve racking and will not go away, and some might feel bad for the people being harassed by the reporters. What most people don’t realize is that those reporters are why we see all the current events we do. When we turn on the television and see that someone escaped from jail, or we open a newspaper and read that a local high school won their football game, it is all thanks to the press (Anderson). There once was a time when a reporter could walk up to an event and record what they saw. They could then proceed to write an article about it and publish it to have it placed in the newspaper. In the modern world they could record the event and have it televised on a news station or any other station. However times are changing and the meaning of the freedom of the press is changing. The time when a reporter could report on anything has changed and freedom of speech has played a big role in this as well. The press is starting to be restricted and held back when the government or certain people do not want information to be released. This has caused the rise of protestors resulting in the government trying to suppress them. What they cannot suppress though, are the freedoms of the First Amendment. Numerous court cases have risen due to these issues because the press know how important their job is and how it affects us as Americans. These problems that have risen are not completely the presses fault though and it mostly lies within government regulation of the press. Many of these problems are preventable and could have been stopped. Court cases like __Nebraska Press Assoc. v. Stuart__ where the press had confessions from people accused in a crime and could not release them to the police are examples of where the press was restricted when they should not have been. There were also cases that had to do with copyright issues like in __Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co.__ As well as these court cases, the unregulated press has shown in crazy untrue stories that are published in local newspapers like stories of Sasquatch being found or a man marries a bear. Their problems have been shown in recent history as well like in the Vietnam War were footage taken was not censored when shown in America. Most of these issues are examples of the problems that could have been prevented by the government if the press was run more effectively. The government is fully capable of regulating the press and with the help of us as Americans; they can make the world of the press a better place. In today’s society, the government needs to help control the press and protect their first amendment rights to make the press more effective and efficient. First of all, the press has not always been what we think it is and see today. The old press before television wrote and recorded what they saw. It was spread with newspapers and old methods of transportation. These older tactics and methods made the spread of news significantly slower than it is today. Due to advances in technology the press can send their news across America and from other parts of the world. It is a modern advancement that is important because the press and its reporters can send us information faster and more efficiently. This is an amazing advancement but some people have noticed that even though news is capable of being sent to them it never gets there (Freedom of the Press). There is an enormous, controversial topic behind this and it has to do with government restricting the press. “Freedom of the press protects the right to obtain and publish information or opinions without government censorship or fear of punishment. Censorship occurs when the government examines publications and productions and prohibits the use of material it finds offensive.”(Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Press). When the government and certain people do not want information broadcasted to the public the have it blocked and the press cannot release it. Some might say that the government should restrict certain things that the press tries to release and some things should not be restricted but that is not the problem. The government needs to have better control of the press to determine what they can and cannot show (Anderson). Some of the most controversial issues with the freedom of the press have shown up in the Supreme Court. When the government laws and restrictions on the press fail to work, problems rise and lawsuits happen. In a Supreme Court case, __Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co.__, a reporter went to a local event where a man was going to shoot himself out of a cannon. The reporter recorded the event and reported on it to be aired on the news. However the man shooting himself out of the cannon, Zacchini, sued the news company saying that his performance was his own property and the reporter did not have permission to record it. The court ruled in favor of Zacchini, but the press did win in some ways. Even though they lost court case the government made provisions to the First Amendment that allows the press to only show certain parts of a performance with out the performers permission (__Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co.).__ This court case helped the press in a minor way even though they lost to Zacchini, but the real problem to be seen is the little control the government has over what the press can and cannot do. The government has not done a great deal things to protect the rights of the press when they are accused of things like copyright, or said what they can report on and what they cannot report on. These situations have greatly affected the modern world and how the press can interact with celebrities, or other people and businesses that are important. Another Supreme Court case that questioned the limits of the press was __Nebraska Press Assoc. v. Stuart__. In this case the press had acquired confessions from accused people in a crime. To protect the rights of the accused the press was not allowed to release the confessions to the police. The press and the police grouped up and took the problem to court. The court ruled in favor of the press and they were able to release the information to the police. This is also a very important case because the justice system sometimes relies on the press to get them information to help solve crimes or get needed information out of people. The government did not defend their right to the First Amendment so it had to be taken to court. This was information that could not be kept secret; therefore more provisions were forced to be made to the First Amendment (__Nebraska Press Assoc. v. Stuart)__. In __ CURTIS PUBLISHING CO. v. BUTTS __ Supreme Court case the press wrote about how a head coach of a football team could have fixed a recent game. The head coach sued the company for defaming him. The problem that the press came across was that the head coach was not a public official; he was just a public figure. The press decided to report on it anyway and publish an article about it, this and the defaming article itself is what gave the right for the coach to sue the publishing company (__CURTIS PUBLISHING CO. v. BUTTS)__. Again this wasn’t the presses fault, it was the lack of government regulation that caused the article to be published in the first place. One of the problems with the unregulated press is the lies and untrue stories that are published nation wide. It could be a minor story from a small community or a story that gets televised nation wide. There have been numerous accounts of the press adding false information to stories, or just making fictional stories. Stories of Sasquatch being found and misleading stories that the press creates distract us from our everyday lives. These fictional stories need to be censored by the government so the American people do not get involved and become obsessed with them. The stories that the press releases are not a problem themselves, it is the later effect they have on people that give the stories too much attention. The press has the right to publish these stories in smaller communities, but when it gets spread across the nation, it has gotten too much interest and should be restricted by the government. There are many more important problems and stories than these fictional one and they do not have the right to take the place of them. During the Vietnam War, there were many issues going on in politics and the war itself. It was a time of distrust of the government for the common people and depression, however for the press it was a time of opportunity to go and report on the war and politics of that time. It was the start of the press becoming more independent and uncontrolled by the government. The Vietnam war was also the first war were reporters could roam the battlefields and record the ongoing war and interview the soldiers. During their time there, reporters captured many graphic and disturbing footage from the brutality of war and ended up bringing the recordings back to America. The government had known what they were doing but they did not do anything to stop them from recording the war and bringing it back. This is where problems started to rise. When the reporters brought back the war footage they broadcasted it on the television for all of America to see. These videos are the ones that the government especially needed to control at the time. The videos showed bombing raids, soldiers killing one another, and even civilian causalities form the war. Everyone watching the news could see it, even children could see the uncensored war footage. The national broadcasting of the war was not put to a stop right away; the government let it go on for years until the war was nearly over (Press Freedom vs. Military Censorship.). “But starting with the Korean War and then Vietnam, the press took an increasingly independent and critical view of the military. In Vietnam, more than 2,000 accredited reporters roamed freely throughout battle zones interviewing ordinary soldiers rather than relying on the often rosy picture of the war presented by the Pentagon.”(Press Freedom vs. Military Censorship) The government not only hurt themselves by letting the press show the footage but also the American people. Events like this need to be censored so that anyone in America cannot just turn on the television and see the violence of war. There have been slow steps made by the government to protect America from being able to view military campaigns led the U.S., however many videos are still accessible to this day. Videos can easily be obtained on the Internet showing the fighting going on in the Middle East, and it is even broadcasted on the news as well. It is obvious that the government needs to control the press when it comes to the military and what they can show about it to the public.

Reflection: While researching the topic of the freedom of the press I found many eye opening ideas and problems. I had always thought of the press as reporters that go about freely and share their findings with the public; however I found out that there is much more to the press than this. I had also never realized that it was a very controversial topic in America due to the misleading First Amendment, which gives freedom to the press. It turns out that the press has had to deal with many problems like being sued for broadcasting things that were copyrighted, not being regulated by the government when they should be, and many more issues that should have never existed. All of this research really goes to show the problems of the press, but that doesn’t mean that they should be oppressed and restricted all of the time. I do think that there are certain things that should not be revealed to the public by the press, but I do not think that they should be punished for showing it. In most of the research I found that the main problems came from government regulation of the press. It is obvious that in some situations the government has no control over the press, so the law and the justice system end up getting involved. One day, I was with a friend and walking down a road to a store when we came across a court that had just closed an important case. The case which none of us knew about was not important to us, but what we did see was troublesome. News vans with reporters crowded around the building waiting to interview everyone as they came out. When they finally came out the reporters bombarded them with questions and some even had cameras to capture the moment. Eventually the press was so overwhelming that the police had to get involved and control the situation. The reporters were forced to pack up and leave the scene by the police. My friend and I had joked that the reporters get what they deserved for storming the court like they did and terrorizing everyone that was there. This memory I had thought nothing of until I did this research. I realized I was very wrong about what I had thought about the press, that they were a nuisance to society and were insignificant. The press actually plays an important role in society relaying all the important events that go on in the world. This research showed me in that situation the press was not controlled properly and it was an easily preventable situation. I personally think that the press could be changed in some ways to make it a safer environment and more effective. I know that it is not the entire governments fault’ however they could make the press a lot more efficient than the press today. I am not the best at making solutions to problems, but we as Americans should see that the situation with the press is slowly deteriorating and that it needs to be fixed. We need to figure out ways to regulate the press to stop all of these unnecessary lawsuits and police involvement with the press. If we don’t act quickly we might lose control of the press forever and not be able to regain it. Imagine all the horrible things and events that go on in the world not being controlled like recorded crimes, videos of war, and graphic news articles. We don’t want our kids and future generations to be exposed to these types of atrocities. This is why I believe this is an important issue. Where would the world be without the press, but how can we perfect it and make it more controlled and efficient? I think that we can make a change as Americans if we stand up and fight for the rights of our First Amendment.

Works Cited Anderson, Tim. “Point: The Right to a Free Press.” //Points of View Reference Center.// __ CURTIS PUBLISHING CO. v. BUTTS __. The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. 11.December 2012. <__http://www.oyez.org/cases/19601969/1966/1966_37__>. "Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Press." //Freedom of Speech and Freedom of// // Press //. SOC 34E.01 HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2012 “Freedom of the Press.” //Current Issues: Macmilian Social Science Library.// New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2003. //Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context.//Web. 28 Nov. “Freedom of the Press.” //Great American Court Cases.// Ed. Mark Mikula and L. Mpho Mabunda. Vol. 1: Individual Liberties. Detroit: Gale, 1999. //Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context.//Web. 28 Nov. "Freedom of the Press." //Freedom of Press//. Bill of Rights Institute, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2012. __ NEBRAKA PRESS ASSOC. v. STUART. __ The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. 26 November 2012. []. "Press Freedom vs. Military Censorship." //Crf-usa.org//. Constitutional Rights Foundation, 2012. Web. 11 Dec. 2012. __ ZACCHINI v. SCRIPPS-HOWARD BROADCASTING CO. __ The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. 26 November 2012. [].