First Amendment and Media Shield

[tonyz]

Generally speaking, many folks IMO exhibit a healthy distrust for this government.

Something similar could be said of the MSM.

Now, some in the federal government (through Sen. Schumer's bill) want to legislate/define/limit those few news/opinion outlets outside of the MSM.

What could possibly go wrong?

[Sigaba]

Originally Posted by miclo18d

Straw an argument. The military is under no obligation to allow 1st Amendment rights in a foreign country during war.

Then how should the following statement from the U.S. Army's office of public affairs be interpreted? (Source is here.)

Public Affairs fulfills the Army's obligation to keep the American people and the Army informed, and helps to establish the conditions that lead to confidence in America's Army and its readiness to conduct operations in peacetime, conflict and war.

Is it the army's position that the American peoples' need to know does not extend oversees or that the army is the best judge of what the American people need to know? How do either of these positions differ from what some members of Congress and the current administration are attempting to do now?

Originally Posted by miclo18d

What about another act.... The Sedition Act of 1918. Brought to you by the father of progressivism.

First, your counter question dodges my point that the debate over governmental control of the media is a long standing issue in American history that dates back to the early national period, and that not all the framers/founding fathers had the same view.

Second, does the argument that the Sedition Act was a "political manuever" undermine the use of the founding fathers in general and the Federalists in particular as the epitome of American political life? That is, if the Federalists could act out of political self interest in 1798, then why not also in 1787 or 1789 or anywhere in between?

Third, by attributing the Sedition Act of 1918 to "the father of progressivism" you are neglecting the fact that (a) the Progressive Era began in the 1890s and that (b) the act was opposed by prominent progressives such as Sen. Hiram Johnson (D-CA) while it was supported by conservative Southerners such as Sen. Lee Slater Overman (D-NC) and Sen. John Hollis Bankhead (D-GA).